For the initial public offering (IPO) of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the Centre has shortlisted 50-60 anchor investors, which include BlackRock, Sands Capital, Fidelity Investments, Standard Life, and JP Morgan, and will soon finalise its anchor book. The feedback from anchor investors has led to price discovery in LIC shares, valuing India's largest insurer at around Rs 7 trillion, said an official aware of the development. The "attractive valuation" is seen widening the investor base by providing an opportunity to more of them to participate in the IPO, the official added.
Sixteen merchant banks are in the fray to act as book running lead managers (BRLM) for the initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). These merchant banks will have to make a presentation before the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on August 24-25. The shortlisted banks are BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets India, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets(India), J.P. Morgan India, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India), Axis Capital, DAM Capital Advisors, HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities, IIFL Securities, JM Financial, Kotak Mahindra Capital, SBI Capital Market, and Yes Securities India.
Taking a cue from Zomato's stellar initial public offering (IPO), through which it garnered a valuation of Rs 1 trillion, the government has asked its advisors and valuers to ascertain if the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) should be valued at Rs 10 trillion or more. The government is looking to offload about 10 per cent stake in LIC through the IPO. At that valuation, the government stands to net at least Rs 1 trillion from LIC's proposed IPO, which will boost the Centre's efforts to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 trillion for the current financial year.
RBI's interest rate decision, quarterly earnings and global cues would be the major driving factors for equity markets this week, analysts said adding that the impact of the Union Budget could linger on this week. Trading activity of foreign investors will also be a key driver for the markets, experts noted. "US and India's manufacturing PMI for January to be released on Monday, will be the key macro data to watch out for.
'From our perspective, it will bring additional customers and from their perspective, it will get them younger customers.'
Under the new model, the surplus distribution in the participating policyholders' fund has been modified to 90:10 in a phased manner, wherein 90 per cent will go to policyholders and 10 per cent to shareholders. Further, 100 per cent of the surplus generated out of the non-participating business will be available for distribution to all shareholders.
Listing of LIC will help bring in greater transparency, public participation and also deepen the equity market.
The policies that have lapsed for more than two years and were not allowed to be revived earlier can also be revived now, LIC said in a statement.
Insurance giant LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per share for the Rs 21,000 crore public offer that is likely to open on May 4, sources said. According to sources, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) would offer a Rs 60 discount for policyholders and Rs 40 for retail investors and employees.
DIIs owned equities worth Rs 73.5 trillion, just 1.9 per cent less than FPIs. This marks a significant change from a decade ago.
The FM further said that the listing brings in more financial discipline among the entities.
With the lockdown being eased gradually, providing more and more digital solutions, for service delivery and procurement of new policies, is what the corporation is focussing on.
In absolute terms, the outstanding book value of NPAs of LIC in the debt portfolio across life, pension and unit-linked funds is to the tune of Rs 32,685.39 crore at the end of December 2019.
rediffGURU T S Khurana answers readers' personal income tax queries.
Investors in LIC's insurance and other schemes are receiving a lower rate of return because LIC is subsidising incompetence at best and malfeasance at worst in institutions such as IDBI Bank and IL&FS, says Jaimini Bhagwati.
This is despite the private sector companies outperforming their public sector counterparts, reports Sachin P Mampatta.
The National Commission indicted LIC for working in cahoots with doctors for baseless certificates to repudiate claims and held this to be an unfair practice.
The initial public offer of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, got subscribed 2.37 times on the third day of the bidding on Thursday, helped by institutional buyers. This is the largest IPO in the country, surpassing LIC's initial share sale of Rs 21,000 crore. The Rs 27,870 crore initial share sale got bids for 23,63,26,937 shares against 9,97,69,810 shares on offer, translating into 2.37 times subscription, as per NSE data.
State-un insurer LIC has pared its stake in Infosys to 5.96 per cent, reducing its holding in the IT major in the last quarter with an estimated sale of shares worth over Rs 2,000 crore.
Shares of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, on Tuesday made a muted market debut and further fell by nearly 6 per cent against the issue price of Rs 1,960. The stock listed at Rs 1,931, reflecting a decline of 1.47 per cent from the issue price on the BSE. Later, the stock made some recovery and hit a high of Rs 1,968.80, up 0.44 per cent.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Friday got its first female managing director and another new MD.
'LIC's proposed investment will come out of what is technically called the 'policyholders funds'.' 'As the name implies, these monies belong to policyholders; that is, you, me and 25 crore others who have taken a total of 30 crore policies from LIC.' 'It is not the government's or LIC's money to play poker with,' says S Muralidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas.
Among the new entries, the largest by market capitalisation are LIC, Avenue Supermarts (DMart), Adani Green Energy, Zomato and Jio Financial Services.
The initial public offer of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, received an 18 per cent subscription on the first day of bidding on Tuesday. The Rs 27,870 crore initial share sale received bids for 1,77,89,457 shares against 9,97,69,810 shares on offer, as per NSE data. The IPO received over 9 lakh applications on the first day.
Children's plans contribute close to 10 per cent to the total premium collected through the 50-odd life insurance products across the country.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, has received capital markets regulator Sebi's approval to float an initial public offering (IPO), people familiar with the development said on Wednesday. This development marks a significant milestone for the Indian industry, as it is the first automaker initial share-sale in over two decades, following Japanese automaker Maruti Suzuki's listing in 2003.
The exposure, which is for the period ended September 2019, is across various platforms such as life funds, pension funds, and unit-linked funds.
While IDBI Bank's 140 million customers and 1800-odd branches will come in handy for LIC to hawk insurance, the bank can use LIC's massive agent network to sell its retail loans. But if it is run the same way it had been in the past and LIC is a proxy of the government, then it has no future, says Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Insurer has also made fresh investments since December 2015 quarter when RBI told banks to recognise bad loans
Private insurance firms say, over the past few years, they have been investing on digital technologies to reach semi urban and rural areas.
The next step for the Life Insurance Corporation of India is to approach market regulator Sebi, as the bank, which is also state-owned, is a listed entity.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a dollar-rupee two-year sell-buy swap auction for $5 billion on March 8, which will suck out rupee liquidity from the system. The swap will be in the nature of a simple sell/buy foreign exchange from the RBI side, in which a bank will buy US dollars from the central bank and simultaneously agree to sell the same amount of US dollars at the end of the swap period. "With a view to elongating the maturity profile of its forward book and smoothen the receivables relating to forward assets, it has been decided to undertake sell/buy swap auction of $5 billion on March 8, 2022," the RBI said in a statement. The auction cut-off will be based on the premium amount in paisa terms up to two decimal points.
The Government is likely to stand guarantee to Life Insurance Corporation for risk management losses instead of amending LIC Act to allow it to tap the market or infuse fresh capital.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure Ltd has slashed its standalone debt by 87 per cent to Rs 475 crore after it cleared outstanding dues of Life Insurance Corporation of India, ICICI Bank and other lenders, the firm said on Wednesday. In stock exchange filings and press statements, Reliance Infrastructure said its standalone external debt has reduced from Rs 3,831 crore to Rs 475 crore. "Consequently, the net worth of the company will stand at Rs 9,041 crore."
According to sources, in a January 6 letter to the department of financial services under the finance ministry, LIC said it wanted to stop sponsoring LIC Nomura Mutual Fund, and might offer some of its stake in LIC Housing Finance to other shareholders.
Hyundai Motor India Limited's (HMIL's) record Rs 27,870 crore initial public offering (IPO) may not have set the primary market alight with sky-high subscription levels, but it has spelled a windfall for the five investment banks steering the share sale. The Indian arm of the South Korean carmaker paid Rs 493 crore - 1.77 per cent of the issue size - in fees and commissions to the book running lead managers (BRLMs), marking the largest-ever payout for an IPO in the country.
The finance ministry is in favour of extending the August deadline for public sector banks (PSBs) as well as insurance companies to increase their minimum public shareholding (MPS) to the mandated 25 per cent, said a senior government official. "The election results will determine the course of action. "Most likely, those who did not receive an extension to meet the minimum shareholding norm will be granted one," the senior government official said.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd has become the country's fifth most valuable auto firm by market valuation in its debut trade on Tuesday. Shares of Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the Indian arm of South Korean automaker Hyundai, listed at Rs 1,931, reflecting a decline of 1.47 per cent against the issue price of Rs 1,960 on the BSE earlier in the day. The stock slumped 7.80 per cent to Rs 1,807.05 during the day and finally ended at Rs 1,820.40 apiece, down 7.12 per cent.
Insurer likely to support Ratan Tata; reduction in stake might have been profit booking.
The life insurance industry reported a 25.28 per cent decline in new business premium income in November 2023 to Rs 26,494.83 crore from Rs 34,588.8 crore recorded a year ago. The fall in group premium and change in taxation norms for policies with a higher ticket size dragged the premiums of the state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and private insurers, respectively. According to the data released by the Life Insurance Council, the premium of private insurers slipped 9.33 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 10,360.29 crore from Rs 11,426.73 crore as a result of a change in product mix due to the measures taken to counter the impact of tax imposed on the premiums of Rs 5 lakh.
