LIC IPO: The shares of India’s biggest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) listed at a discount at its debut at the stock market. The government did its best to offer a very high value company at a fair price, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management said after the LIC IPO listed at discount on Tuesday, May 17. Shares of LIC listed at the BSE and NSE on Tuesday morning at Rs 872 per share, down by as much as 8.11 per cent from its issue price of Rs 949 a share.
“The government has offered discounts to both policyholders and retail investors. We did our best to offer a very high value company at a fair price. Have to be mindful of preparing the roadmap going forward,” DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey was quoted as saying by CNBC TV18 on the day after the LIC listing. The government had provided a discount of Rs 60 to LIC policyholders, and Rs 45 each to retail investors and LIC employees to attract more bids.
Urging investors to look at the LIC IPO float in a different way as it is such a large issuance, Pandey said that the government also has to be mindful in preparing the roadmap going forward. “It is too early to discuss the long roadmap,” he added. Through the Rs 21,000 crore LIC IPO, the government is looking to meet its disinvestment targets for FY 2022-23, after its failed to meet the same last fiscal.
In a separate conversation, LIC chairman Mangalam Ramasubramanian Kumar told CNBC TV18 regarding the insurance behemoth’s plans going forward. He said that the management is working on ensuring that LIC would continue to grow further. “We (LIC) have a lot of bandwidth in terms of agency force. The company is on bank insurance in a big way,” he said.
Kumar added that the LIC is likely to report a big double-digit growth in non-participating insurance business in the future. “We do not want to stray away from the participating business. However, the company will grow its non-participating business moving forward,” the LIC boss added. He noted that it is difficult to predict any embedded value change of the company at the moment.
After the LIC listing at NSE and BSE, the company has become the fifth-largest company in terms of valuation, with a market cap of Rs 5,65,235 crore at the moment. Soon after the discounted listing on Tuesday, LIC shares made a quick recovery to hit Rs 920 on BSE. However, later in the day the price fell to Rs 882 per equity share. LIC listing at NSE and BSE at discount was more or less anticipated by market experts following the negative LIC IPO GMP, and negative market sentiments in general.
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