LIC: The quintessential white knight

State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has always been the government's go-to investor when it comes to divesting its holdings in public sector undertakings. Irrespective of the market conditions, LIC has always been ready to sign big cheques to bail the government out when demand from other investors has been poor.

On Friday, the insurance behemoth invested around Rs 10,000 crore in Coal India's share sale, which helped the government raise over Rs 22,500 crore. LIC's purchase accounted for around 44 per cent of the shares on offer.

This was because the offering saw decent demand from other investors, including retail (who invested around Rs 1,850 crore), mutual funds (Rs 603 crore) and foreign investors (around Rs 6,000 crore). A snapshot of some key disinvestments where LIC has bailed the government: