Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Govt Likely To Review Timing Of LIC IPO, Says Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: The central government likely to take another look at the timing of the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) because of Russia-Ukraine conflict, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

According to a report by Bloomberg, “Ideally, I’d like to go ahead with it because we’d planned it for some time based purely on Indian considerations,” Sitharaman said in an interview with Businessline, “But if global considerations warrant that I need to look at it, I wouldn’t mind looking at it again,” she said.

The review could impact the timing of the mega public offering, India’s largest, which made up the biggest portion of the country’s $10.4-billion asset-sale programme aimed at stanching the Budget deficit for the year through March 31, 2022.

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The government had set a March deadline for the IPO and its IPO document filed on February 13 put the insurance giant’s embedded value at Rs 5.4 lakh crore.

The minister said, “When a private sector promoter takes this call, he has to only explain this to the company’s board,” when asked if a call about delaying the IPO could be constrained by the government’s annual disinvestment targets. “But I would have to explain it to the whole world,” she added.

The Union Cabinet recently has approved up to 20 per cent of foreign direct investment (FDI) through the automatic route in LIC in order to expedite disinvestment of the country’s largest insurer.

The state-run insurer is planning to sell a 5 per cent stake to raise about $8 billion next month, which could make it India’s largest IPO by far.