LIC stock up 5.5% as Sebi gives 3 more yrs to meet public shareholding norm

LIC news: The revised timeline for LIC to achieve 10 per cent public shareholding is on or before May 16, 2027

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) stock price jumped 5.5 per cent to Rs 983 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday after stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) granted additional time to the company to meet public shareholding norms.

In an exchange filing, India's largest public sector insurer, said that Seb, vide its letter dated May 14, 2024,  has conveyed its decision to grant additional time of three years to achieve 10 per cent public shareholding, within a period of five years from the date of listing.

"Accordingly, the revised timeline for the Corporation to achieve 10 per cent public shareholding is on or before May 16, 2027," it added. READ FILING HERE

LIC had the deadline of May 2024 to meet the minimum public shareholding norm.

Sebi rules mandate all listed companies to maintain 25 per cent public float but newly-listed companies are granted a three-year window to fulfill the requirement. Back in December, the Finance Ministry had granted the PSU insurer from complying with 25 per cent MPS norms till 2032.

Life Insurance Corporation of India is India's largest insurance company as well as the largest institutional investor with total assets under management worth Rs 49.24 trillion ($620 billion) as of March 2023.

Established in 1956, the company went public in May 2022 and raised Rs 20,500-crore from Street. The shares of the company, however, had dropped nearly 8 per cent on their market debut.

That said, the stock has been on an uptrend amid a sustained improvement in its financials. LIC stock hit its life-time high of Ra 1,175 on February 9, 2024, and is up 24 per cent over its IPO issue price of Rs 949 per share. The stock has also bounced back 121.6 per cent from its all-time low of Rs 530, hit on March 29, 2023.

In the December quarter of FY24, LIC had reported a 49.10 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in its net profit at Rs 9,444.42 crore, compared to Rs 6,334.2 crore in the same period last year, on healthy growth in premium and net investment. income.

The state-owned life insurer reported a net premium income of Rs 1.17 trillion in Q3FY24, a 4.6 per cent year-Y-o-Y increase from Rs 1.12 trillion in Q3FY23.

The company is yet to announce its date for March quarter results.