LIC picked up 71% of shares divested by govt in SAIL on Friday

State-owned insurer LIC came to government's rescue during the share sale of steel major SAIL last week, by acquiring 70.57% of the total offer.

This amounts to about Rs 1,069 crore, of the total Rs 1,517 crore which the government raised by divesting 24.04 crore shares or 5.82% of its stake in Steel Authority of India through the offer for sale route.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which had 5.023% stake in SAIL, bought additional 169,644,181 shares or 4.107% stake through the OFS, it said in a BSE filing today.

LIC now holds 377,115,022 shares or 9.13% stake in the company.

With the mega purchase, LIC has helped the government come close to its revised target of raising Rs 24,000 crore through disinvestment this fiscal, ending March 31.

However, this is not the first time that LIC had rescued the government in achieving the disinvestment target. During the last fiscal, the state-owned insurer had pumped in close to Rs 12,000 crore during the concluding minutes of government's Rs 12,750 crore equity sale in ONGC.

It has also acquired shares worth over Rs 2,000 crore during the stake sale in NMDC, NTPC, Hindustan Copper, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, Nalco and Oil India during the current fiscal.

LIC has been the single largest buyer of shares sold by the government in most of these companies.

For 2012-13, the disinvestment proceeds has been about Rs 23,920 crore, the highest ever realisation in a single year on this account.