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State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India, which is set for its mega initial public offering (IPO), has completed all its planned roadshows with investors, without any impact of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
“All the road shows that had been scheduled have been completed. There has been robust interest from investors despite the current global situation and volatility in equity markets,” said a source close to the development.
A final call on the timing of the IPO will be taken by the government, the source said, adding that the decision on the filing of the red herring prospectus (RHP) will also be taken soon. The audited third quarter numbers of LIC have been also been readied for the RHP.
A meeting between the officials of LIC and the Ministry of Finance is likely to be scheduled over the next few days to take a call on these issues. “LIC is ready for the IPO, whether it is this fiscal or pushed back to the next. But it is now upto the government to take a decision on the timing of the IPO based on market conditions,” the source said.
With less than three weeks left of the fiscal, a decision on the listing is expected soon. The Centre is set to sell five per cent of its stake in the life insurance behemoth.
While it has been scheduled for the current fiscal year, the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has left global markets in a tizzy, had raised questions about the timing of the issue.
In an interview to BusinessLine, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, too, had indicated a review of the LIC IPO’s timing given the evolving geopolitical situation. “Ideally, I would like to go ahead with it because we had planned it for some time based purely on Indian considerations,” she said. “But if global considerations warrant that I need to look at it, I would not mind looking at it again,” she added.
The mega IPO of LIC, which will be the biggest ever in the country, has generated a good amount of buzz amongst domestic investors, including retail investors.
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