LIC garners Rs 5,627 cr from anchor investors, domestic institutions

New Delhi: Insurance behemoth LIC on Tuesday said it has raised a little over Rs5,627 crore from anchor investors led primarily by domestic institutions ahead of its mega initial public offering (IPO). Anchor Investors' (AIs) portion (5,92,96,853 equity shares) was subscribed at Rs949 per equity share, the insurer said in an early morning filing to exchanges.

Out of the allocation of about 5.9 crore shares to AIs, 4.2 crore shares (71.12 per cent) were allocated to 15 domestic mutual funds through 99 schemes, the filing said. Besides, investment was made by some domestic insurance companies and pension funds. Some of the prominent names in this category included ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance, PNB Metlife Insurance, SBI Pension Fund and UTI Retirement Solutions Pension Fund Scheme.

Foreign participation included Government of Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Government Pension Fund Global and BNP Investment LLP. As per the prospectus, out of the 22.13 crore shares offered for sale, 5.93 crore shares were reserved for anchor investors. The government by diluting 3.5 per cent stake in LIC would raise Rs 21,000 crore, the biggest ever IPO in the Indian market.

The previous such high fundraising was seen in the IPO of Paytm in 2021 at Rs 18,300 crore and Coal India in 2010 at Rs 15,200 crore. The price band for LIC IPO is Rs 902-949 per equity share. Policyholders will get a discount of Rs 60 per equity share, while retail investors and employees will get a discount of Rs 45 on each share.