Govt opens LIC stake sale to meet public shareholding norms

The Government will sell up to a 6.5 per cent stake in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) at a floor price of Rs 382 per share through a two-day Offer for Sale (OFS) beginning Tuesday.

The issue opens for non-retail investors on Tuesday and for retail investors on Wednesday.

If fully subscribed, the sale of over 82.22 crore shares or a 6.5 per cent stake at the given floor price will fetch about Rs 31,000 crore to the disinvestment kitty. The floor price is at a 10 per cent discount over Monday’s closing price of LIC shares of Rs 424.35 on the BSE.

“Government offers to disinvest 2.5 per cent equity with an additional 4 per cent as a green shoe option,” Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Arunish Chawla said in a post on X.

The stake sale will help LIC achieve the minimum public shareholding requirement mandated by market regulator Sebi ahead of schedule.

Sebi had given LIC time till May 16, 2027, to achieve a minimum 10 per cent public shareholding.

At present, the Government holds a 96.5 per cent stake in LIC.

It had earlier sold 3.5 per cent through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in May 2022 at a price band of Rs 902-949 per share, raising about Rs 21,000 crore.

LIC currently has a market capitalisation of over Rs 5.36 lakh crore. LIC shares settled at Rs 424.35 on Monday, down 0.12 per cent over the previous close on BSE.

So far in the current fiscal, the Government has mopped up Rs 21,082 crore through stake sale in seven Public Sector Undertakings and remittances from SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India).