BackLIC IPO: Govt to take a call on timing this week
LIC IPO: ‘A decision on timing the IPO would be taken this week,’ the official told PTI
PremiumNew Delhi: The government is likely to take a call on the timing of Life Insurance Corp. of India’s initial public offering (LIC IPO) this week. "A decision on timing the IPO would be taken this week," an official told PTI.
The official further said it would be a tough call to decide whether to go ahead with the retail and domestic investor demand or to wait for geopolitical tension to ease and FIIs to return to the market, PTI reported.
The IPO, which was originally planned to be launched in March got derailed due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The government has time till May 12 to launch the IPO without filing fresh papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
If the IPO is not launched now then it would have to be deferred till August or September since fresh papers with updated quarterly results and valuations would have to be filed with Sebi.
The success of LIC’s IPO is crucial for the government to meet its asset sales goal, which has been cut to a modest ₹65,000 crore target for the current fiscal.
At a 5 per cent stake dilution, the LIC IPO would be the biggest ever in the history of the Indian stock market and once listed its market valuation would be comparable to top companies like RIL and TCS.
So far, the amount mobilised from the IPO of Paytm in 2021 was the largest ever at ₹18,300 crore, followed by Coal India (2010) at nearly ₹15,500 crore and Reliance Power (2008) at ₹11,700 crore.
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