The first day of the initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India saw strong demand from employees and policyholders.
The IPO was off to a strong start and was subscribed 0.67 times on by 7 pm on Wednesday. The offer received bids for 10.86 crore shares against the offered 16.20 crore equity shares (excluding shares offered to anchor investors).
In fact, hours after the IPO opened, the portion for policyholders was fully subscribed
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LIC IPO: Policyholder portion fully subscribed within hours
The portion reserved for policyholders was subscribed 1.1 times by 12:42 pmAccording to data with the stock exchanges, the portion reserved for policyholders was subscribed 1.99 times while that for employees was subscribed 1.17 times.
The portion for retail individual investors was subscribed 0.60 times.
In the non-institutional category, 0.27 times of the quota was subscribed. Qualified Institutional Buyers quota was subscribed 0.33 times. Foreign institutional investors put in bids for just 225 shares.
Experts expect the issue will be fully subscribed and the response will pick up further.
Uday Kotak, MD and CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank said it is very heartening to see the response of retail investors to the issue.
“LIC is a very strong brand in the minds of any investor. I am very happy with the retail investor response that has come today,” Kotak said.
Special dispensation
Significantly, the RBI has said all ASBA-designated bank branches will remain open for public on Sunday to facilitate processing of applications for LIC’s IPO.
In a special dispensation, bidding for the IPO would remain open even on Saturday (May 7) between 10 am and 7 pm for all investors. The move comes given the huge size of the issue and the expected demand from retail investors.
Usually, bidding for IPOs is not available on Saturday. Sources indicated the move would also ensure less stress on the banking system.
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