LIC expects 7.5-10 million retail investors to apply for its IPO

Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) expects at least one seventh of the country's investing population in financial markets, including its policy holders, to participate in the mega initial public offering (IPO) and contribute as much as ₹25,000 crore to the total sale.

It expects 7.5-10 million retail applicants for the IPO, in what could be the largest non-institutional participation in the history of Indian capital markets.

The average ticket size is expected to be ₹30,000-40,000 per individual application, three people familiar with the matter told ET citing preliminary feedback from book runners and other market participants.


LIC of India did not reply to ET's queries.

India has 73.8 million demat account holders, according to a government estimate. With the insurance behemoth reaching out to policy holders the number of total demat account holders is estimated to have surged to 80 million in the country by now. The IPO is likely to be launched by March-end.

"Investment bankers are moving aggressively to tap individual participation amid a good number of interests from them across the country," a senior executive involved in the share sale said on condition of anonymity. Investment bankers, local brokers and agents are driving concerted efforts to ensure maximum retail participation. As of March 31 last year, there were about 1.35 million individual LIC agents across the country. The insurer has around 114,000 employees.

"We experience tremendous exuberance coming from individuals living in remote districts of this country," said Suvajit Ray, executive vice president at IIFL Securities.