LIC IPO fully subscribed on Day 2 thanks to employees and policyholders

New Delhi: The initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) sailed through on Thursday, the second day of bidding.

The largest ever IPO in the Indian primary market, aggregating to Rs 20,557 crore, is open for subscription till May 9. Retail bidders can bid for the issue even on Saturday, an unusual move aimed at attracting investors.

According to data from BSE, investors made bids for 16,68,60,765 equity shares or 1.03 times compared to the 16,20,78,067 equity shares offered for the subscription.





Among the five categories, employees and policyholders quotas were fully subscribed, with the given portions getting subscribed 3.11 times and 2.22 times, respectively.

The portion for retail bidders fetched 93 per cent bids, followed by non-institutional bidders, whose portion was subscribed 47 per cent. The allocation for qualified institutional buyers received 40 per cent bids.

The issue is entirely an offer for sale of about 22.13 crore equity shares by the government of India, which owns 100 per cent stake in the insurer, but will offload only 3.5 per cent stake of the company.

The company will sell its shares in the range of Rs 902-949 apiece but has given a discount of Rs 60 per share to its policyholders, who will bid for the issue. Eligible Employees and retail bidders will get a discount of Rs 45 per share.