There are various speculations about the initial public offering (IPO) of the public sector insurance company Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) coming next month. The latest speculation is that the government may sell its 3.5 percent stake.
Government stake sale is expected to raise around Rs 21,000 crore during the IPO, which opens in the first week of May, an official said on Saturday. For its issue, LIC can file a final approval application with market regulator SEBI by Wednesday.
Let us tell you that LIC had filed a draft document of issue with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in February last. At that time LIC had said that the government would sell 5 per cent stake i.e. 316 crore shares in this insurance company.
However, due to the volatility in the stock markets due to the Russo-Ukraine war, LIC’s IPO was postponed for some time. In view of the changed situation, the government has been forced to bring down the issue size to 3.5 per cent. The reservation, discount, issue date and issue price in the issue for LIC policyholders and employees will be known by Wednesday, the official said.