LIC IPO will make India's Insurance business 60% listed; Check details of IPO here

The highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will hit the market in the coming months. Ahead of its release, Additional Secretary in the Finance Ministry Amit Agrawal on Saturday, 21 August 2021, said that the listing of LIC will see about 60 per cent of the insurance business be with listed companies. The approval for the listing had been handed to LIC in July.

According to Amit Agrawal, the public listing of LIC is part of India’s continued efforts to develop the country as an emerging economy with a deepened and achieved scale of economic stability. He pointed out that the Indian insurance business sector has matured over the two decades since the introduction of competition and regulation. Agrawal pointed out that the sector now has 69 insurers as compared to eight back at the start of the century.

“A majority of these have crossed their initial breakeven phase. Once the proposed listing of LIC happens, about 60 per cent of the insurance industry business would be with listed entities. The sector as a whole has been growing at a pace significantly higher than that of the overall economy,” the additional secretary said while speaking at an event to mark Actuaries Day.

When is the LIC IPO coming?

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had earlier handed the in-principle approval for the listing of insurance behemoth company. However, the dates for the initial listing are yet to be announced. According to reports, the IPO will be out around January 2022. The highly anticipated listing dates are still being carefully considered by the officials as it will be one of the biggest listings in the Indian market.

LIC IPO market cap

The LIC IPO will be listed as part of the government’s efforts to raise Rs 1.75 lakh crore through disinvestment in the ongoing financial year. The state-owned Insurance Corporation carries a large-cap size and could become one of the biggest listings ever done. LIC’s public issue could reportedly beat the recently announced Paytm IPO, with a size worth around Rs 65,000-75,000 crore.

A bit about LIC

Life Insurance Corporation is the only government-owned insurance company in the country. Found in 1956, LIC was set up by clubbing together 245 existing insurance companies. LIC held a monopoly over the insurance sector until the 1990’s when the sector was opened for private companies. LIC has around 2,048 branches in India and is one of the biggest corporations in the country.

IMAGE: PTI