LIC Public Issue Likely to Open on May 4

The long-awaited IPO of Life Insurance Corporation of India is scheduled to open on May 4th. According to the report, the offering is scheduled to end on May 9, and LIC's IPO anchor book is scheduled to open on May 2.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has approved the latest draft red herring prospectus, which describes a 3.5% sale of shares instead of the 5% mentioned in the previous draft.

The revised DRHP was submitted to market regulators last week. The government, which owns 100% of the insurance giant, plans to raise Rs 21,000 crore by selling its 3.5% stake, which is about Rs 22 crore.

The LIC board will meet this week to finalize the price band for the IPO. The red herring prospectus will be submitted before SEBI by April 27. According to the LIC Act, The government can reserve up to 10% for the policyholders. 

IPOs in particular are key to the center's planning to reach disinvestment goals. The government has set a capital gain of Rs 65,000 crore. This is an increase from Rs 13,531 crore in the previous fiscal year.

A previous draft paper related to the IPO was submitted to Sebi in February when the government announced plans to sell 31.6 crore shares in a 5% stake in the state insurance company. However, the IPO plan was postponed because the market fluctuated due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.