The government has appointed 10 merchant bankers including Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities India to manage the mega initial public offering of country’s largest insurer LIC.
Other selected bankers include SBI Capital Market, JM Financial, Axis Capital, BofA Securities, JP Morgan India, ICICI Securities, and Kotak Mahindra Capital Co Ltd, a circular on the divestment department website said Government has finalised the book running lead managers and a few other advisors for the IPO of LIC,” DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.
The disinvestment department had invited applications for the appointment of merchant bankers on July 15. Following this, 16 merchant bankers made presentations for managing listing and partial disinvestment of life assurance Corporation (LIC).
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is additionally within the process of appointing a legal adviser for the stake sale and therefore the last date for putting bids is September 16 Actuarial firm Milliman Advisors LLP India has already been appointed to assess the embedded value of LIC before the IPO, which is probably going within the January-March quarter of 2022.
The government is additionally mulling allowing foreign investors to select up stakes within the country’s largest insurer LIC. As per Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) rules, foreign portfolio investors (FPI) are permitted to shop for shares during a public offer.
However, since the LIC Act has no provision for foreign investments, there’s a requirement to align the proposed LIC IPO with Sebi norms regarding foreign investor participation The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had last month cleared the initial public offering proposal of life assurance Corp of India.
The ministerial panel referred to as the choice Mechanism on strategic disinvestment will now choose the quantum of stake to be divested by the govt The potential size of the IPO is predicted to be far larger than any precedent in Indian markets,” the department had said.
The listing of LIC are going to be crucial for the govt in meeting its disinvestment target of ₹ 1.75 lakh crore for 2021-22 (April-March).
So far this fiscal year , ₹ 8,368 crore has been mopped up through minority stake sales in PSU and therefore the sale of SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of the unit investment trust of India) stake in Axis Bank.