Global investors hold preliminary discussions on LIC's anchor book: Report

Investors such as Blackrock, Blackstone, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and others have held preliminary discussions with stakeholders regarding the anchor book of the state-owned insurance behemoth – Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), a report by Economic Times said, quoting unnamed government officials.

The report also says that a few other global investors will be holding meetings this week or early next week regarding the anchor book of LIC. The book managers of LIC are reaching out to as many as 100 global investors, including global fund managers, pension fund managers, and private equity funds, the report said.

So far this year, IPOs in the Indian market have seen investments worth thousands of crores from FPI anchor investors. The top five FPI anchors include Government of Singapore (Rs 1,570 crore), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (Rs 1,197 crore), BlackRock Global Funds-World Technology Fund (Rs 868 crore), Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) PTE. - ODI (Rs 648 crore), and Nomura India Investment Fund Mother Fund (Rs 599 crore), data provided by Prime database showed.

The top five MF anchors include Aditya Birla Sun Life MF (Rs 1,619 crore), HDFC MF (Rs 1,317 crore), SBI MF (Rs 1,201 crore), Axis MF (Rs 1,196 crore) and Mirae Asset MF (Rs 1,178 crore).

LIC’s IPO is being touted as the biggest ever IPO to hit the Indian markets. Various reports have said that the government is looking to dilute a 10 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth.

Business Standard reached out to book managers of LIC and LIC officials for comments, but emails sent to them did not elicit a response.

The government has time and again stated that it is looking to bring the LIC IPO in the current fiscal year (FY22). Finance Secretary, TV Somanathan, talking to a TV channel said that there is a good chance of LIC divestment going through this year.

Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, had last week said that the IPO of LIC would hit the markets by Q4FY22.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Cititgroup, Nomura, Bank of America, SBI Caps, Axis Capital, ICICI Securities, JM Financial, and Kotak Mahindra Capital have been hired by the government to manage the LIC share sale.