LIC To File Draft IPO Papers With SEBI By Next Month, Says Finance Ministry Official

In November, the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) will be filing its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) for its forthcoming initial public offering (IPO).

About 10 merchant bankers that comprise the likes of Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Pvt Ltd, Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt Ltd and Goldman Sachs (India) Pvt Ltd were appointed by the central government last month to manage the aforementioned IPO.

The concerned merchant bankers will be holding global and domestic road shows for the investors by January upon the filing of the DRHP.

The government is planning to list the country’s largest insurer in the public markets within the ongoing financial year that is slated to end in March.

The ministerial panel on disinvestment will be deciding the government stake that will be divested through this IPO after the ministry estimates the embedded value of the LIC.

“We target to bring the IPO within this fiscal and we have set strict timelines. The DRHP would be filed by November,” an officer from the Union Finance Ministry was quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

The central government had set an ambitious target of raising Rs 1.75 lakh crore through disinvestment in FY 2021-22.