New Delhi: The initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), which was opened for subscription on Wednesday (May 4), saw around 35 per cent of its shares up for sale in the first three hours of bidding, according to news reports.
Along with retail investors, LIC policyholders and employee’s were driving the subscription.
On Wednesday, the policyholders subscribed 95 per cent of the shares reserved for them, employees had bid for 60 per cent of the shares reserved for them, while retail investors had subscribed to 38 per cent of the shares reserved for them.
However, according to the reports, the non-institutional category, consisting of corporates, individuals, and others has witnessed a muted demand. Only 8 per cent subscription so far.
On Monday (May 2), the state-run insurer, raised Rs 5,630 crore at the upper end of the price band from anchor investors, which was led primarily by domestic institutions.
Anchor investors portion (5,92,96,853 equity shares) was subscribed at Rs 949 per equity share.
To attract investors, including retail buyers, the IPO will take subscriptions even on Saturday, a notification by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) said.
The IPO, which kicked off on Wednesday, will remain open till May 9 (Monday).
The central government is looking to raise Rs 21,000 crore from the share sale by diluting 3.5 per cent of its stake in the insurance firm. Previously, the government wanted to divest 5 per cent stake in LIC, however, because of ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, coupled with volatile market conditions and rising inflation rates had compelled the government to postponed the IPO till May.