The government on Thursday sold eight per cent of its shares in Maruti Udyog Limited for Rs 1,567.60 crore (Rs 15.66 billion), with Life Insurance Corporation picking up more than 50 per cent of the 2,31,12,804 shares that were on offer.

LIC [Get Quote] successfully bid for 1,68,00,000 shares at Rs 682 per share. In all, eight public financial institutions have picked up Maruti shares.

State Bank of India [Get Quote] would be getting 39,27,074 shares at the price of Rs 660. The average price of the transaction comes out to be Rs 678.24 a share, against the reserve price of Rs 620 a share fixed by the government.

Others who were in the fray included SIDBI, which had quoted the highest at Rs 725 per share, Corporation Bank [Get Quote] Rs 690, EXIM Bank Rs 680, Indian Bank [Get Quote] Rs 670, Union Bank of India [Get Quote] Rs 665 and State Bank of [Get Quote] Patiala Rs 660.