Government receives Rs 2,441 crore dividend from LIC

LIC government dividend: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Friday paid a dividend of Rs 2,441 crore to the government. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi received the cheque on behalf of the government.

''Smt @nsitharaman receives a dividend cheque of Rs 2,441.44 crore from Shri Siddhartha Mohanty, Chairman - Life Insurance Corporation of India (@LICIndiaForever),'' Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Office said in a post on X.

The insurance behemoth was listed on the exchanges in May 2022. The government sold over 22.13 crore shares, or a 3.5 per cent stake, in the company through an offer-for-sale (OFS). The price band for the issue was fixed at Rs 902-949 a share. After the initial public offering (IPO), the government holding in LIC stands at 96.5 per cent.

The shares of LIC ended 0.69 per cent higher at Rs 1,029.90 apiece on the NSE on Friday, March 1, 2024.

Financial performance

LIC standalone profit after tax jumped 49.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 9,444.4 crore for the December quarter (Q3FY24).

The state-owned company net premium income rose 4.7 per cent to Rs 1.17 lakh crore. Its solvency ratio improved to 193 per cent on an annual basis.

Life Insurance Corporation's value of new business (VNB) margin zoomed 200 basis points (bps) to 16.6 per cent for the December quarter

The company announced an interim dividend of Rs 4, or 40 per cent, per equity share of the face value of Rs 10 each.

The market capitalisation of the company is Rs 6.51 lakh crore, according to BSE.