LIC IPO subscribed 2.95 times

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was subscribed 2.95 times as bids closed on the final day of the offer, according to data from stock exchanges. At the upper price band the government will mobiise ₹21,000 crore from this IPO.

The IPO opened for subscription on May 4 and despite volatile market conditions, saw strong responses from LIC’s policyholders who have subscribed to 60% of its issue size, followed by employees, retail investors and other investor categories

The portion reserved for eligible policyholders was subscribed 6.12 times and that for eligible employees was subscribed 4.4 times, while the retail category witnessed 1.99 times subscription; the non-institutional category witnessed subscription of 2.91 times and qualified institutional buyers subscribed 2.83 times.

The offer received bids for 47,83,67,010 shares against the offer size of 16,20,78,067 equity shares, excluding shares offered to anchor investors, as per data available at 7 pm on the stock exchanges showed.

The IPO comprised an offer-for-sale of up to 221,374,920 equity shares of face value of ₹10 each by the President of India. The shares will be listed on the BSE and NSE.

“Participation from tier 2 and 3 cities was high for the LIC IPO,” said Girirajan Murugan, CEO, FundsIndia. “We can attribute this to deeper agent and policyholder penetration of LIC. We have got a good number of applications from the newly-formed union territories as well,” he added.

“We are sure this will pave the way for larger retail participation in the secondary markets. The demat accounts opened for applying for the LIC IPO will be used for larger investments in the equity markets,” he said.