LIC IPO opens; India's largest insurance company offers discount to policyholders, employees

LIC IPO: Life Insurance Corporation of India's IPO, India's biggest-ever public offer, opened on Wednesday for subscription for retail and institutional investors. With the initial public offering, the Centre aims to raise Rs 21,000 crore by divesting its 3.5 percent stake in the public-sector insurance giant. The LIC IPO will close on May 9. India's largest insurance company has fixed the price of equity share at Rs 902-949. The sale of equity shares is through an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 22.13 crore equity shares. They are likely to be listed on May 17.

LIC IPO discount for eligible employees, retail investors

LIC has reserved some shares for its eligible employees and policyholders. It is offering a discount of Rs 45 per equity share to the retail investors and eligible employees. 

LIC IPO discount for policy holders

LIC is the market leader in India when it comes to life insurance. It has a customer base of over 30 crore. The company has decided to provide a discount of Rs 60 per equity share to the eligible policyholders.

Before releasing the LIC IPO, the company had garnered over Rs 5,627 crore from anchor investors. Anchor Investors (AIs) portion (5,92,96,853 equity shares) was subscribed at Rs 949 per equity share, PTI reported.

LIC was to release an IPO of 5% but due to the market conditions, it cut the size of the public offering to 3.5%. At Rs 20,557 crore, the LIC IPO is the biggest IPO ever in India. It will break the record of PayTM, whose IPO was at Rs 18,300 crore, followed by Coal India's 2010 IPO at Rs 18,300 crore. 

LIC was started by Jawaharlal Nehru's government in 1956 with an initial capital of Rs 5 crore. It enjoyed a monopoly over India's market until the year 2000, when the government allowed the private sector to sell insurance. However, despite tough competition, including from foreign-based companies that partnered with Indian players, LIC has a market share of 61.6 percent in terms of premiums, 61.4 percent in terms of new business premium, 71.8 percent in terms of the number of individual policies issued, and 88.8 percent in terms of the number of group policies issued.

With inputs from PTI