Selling Life Breathing Life

The largest public issue in the history of India’s capital market is expected later this year with an estimated value of ₹1 lakh crore. The LIC IPO will give the individual investor an opportunity to be part of one of the biggest and oldest brands of the country that is built solely on trust and confidence

- Yagnesh Kansara

₹13 lakh cr Estimated Value Life Insurance Corp

₹51,000 cr Bonus to policyholders Paid in 2019-20

70% market share In India’s Life Cover Space

The Unfolding

1 February 2020 Government announces intention to float IPO

5 February 2020 Union stages strike against decision

7 February 2020 LIC Chairman MR Kumar clarifies stake sale is not privatisation; FM says IPO to bring in retail investors

22 August 2020 SBI Capital Markets and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu hired as pre-IPO transaction advisors

16 November 2020 Centre floats global tender to engage an actuarial firm to estimate value* of LIC

31 December 2020 Milliman Advisors selected for calculating EV

1 February 2021 Budget proposes changes to the LIC Act

*Embedded value (EV), or consolidated value of shareholders’ interest in life insurance business

It’s saral. At 66, she would be mature enough to don a new look, and step out into the open.

LIC gets ready to go public. The Life Insurance Corporation – often a lifeline for the government in times of crunch – comes handy when the finance minister works out a ₹1.75-lakh-crore cash jab for a staggering economy. Billed to be valued at anything between ₹90,000 crore and ₹1.3 lakh crore, the maiden public issue will be the biggest in the history of the Indian capital market.