Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) share sale via initial public offering may get delayed to next financial year owing to a spike in market volatility as the Russia-Ukraine war rages on, news channel NDTV reported citing sources. The government has time till May 12 to launch the IPO without filing fresh papers with market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) but the IPO is unlikely to even in April given the slump in global markets after Russia invaded Ukraine, the report added.
The government was planning to meet its revised disinvestment target of Rs 78,000 crore from this IPO. According to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) data, the government has received disinvestment receipts of Rs 12,029 crore so far. Considering the revised estimate of Rs 78,000 crore, the government is still falling short by around Rs 66,000 crore from its revised estimate.
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LIC is India’s largest insurance company, with a 65 per cent market share in both total and new premiums in a country with low insurance penetration. It has an enviable number of individual agents (1.35 million), which is 55 per cent of all individual agents in India as on September 30, 2021. It is also India’s largest institutional investor, with a 4 per cent stake in stocks listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
LIC’s embedded value is Rs 5.39 trillion (Rs 5.39 lakh crore) as of September 30, 2021.
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