LIC at new low: The story of India's biggest insurer's stock since listing

From the govt's announcement of plans to divest its stake in LIC, to its debut on the exchanges, to touching a new low, here is a snapshot of this journey so far

The shares of  Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) hit a new low on BSE on Monday, falling 2 per cent to Rs 786.05. This is the lowest LIC's shares has touched since its listing as the market capitalisation of India’s largest insurer went down below the Rs 5-trillion-mark.  

A timeline of IPO listing of LIC, which commands more than 60% of India's insurance market with a sales agent in almost every neighborhood across the country.

February 2020 

The Indian government first announced in February 2020 that it plans to sell its stake in LIC through IPO to meet $29.6 billion state asset divestment target for FY21. However, its plans were derailed as the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

February 2021

The government said that it is planning to sell 10 per cent of its stake in the insurance company. 

February 2022 

The central government filed papers with capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for IPO approval to sell nearly 5 per cent of its stake in the insurance company, drastically cutting down its divestment target. The IPO's size at that time was pegged at Rs 60,000 crore, while LIC’s valuation was pegged at Rs 12 trillion.

March 2022 

The government again lowered its dilution in LIC considering risk-off sentiment among foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the backdrop of Russia-Ukraine war and monetary policy tightening by the US Fed. It filed fresh papers with Sebi in March after obtaining special permission to sell its 3.5 per cent stake in the firm to raise Rs 21,000 crore.
 

May 2, 2022

LIC received a strong demand from its anchor investors who oversubscribed at the upper end of the price range. Nearly $732 million of shares were reserved for the anchor investors. 

May 4, 2022

The LIC IPO opened for retail and other investors as the government set the price band at Rs 902-949 per share, with an additional discount of Rs 45 for retail investors and Rs 60 for the policyholders. with the minimum bid lot size being 15 shares.

LIC IPO was fully subscribed on day 2 and was oversubscribed by three times till May 9. It saw the highest participation of over 7 million small investors. 

May 16, 2022

A day before listing, grey market activity and weak institutional investor demand indicated that LIC shares could list at a discount, anywhere between Rs 900-Rs 940.

May 17, 2022

LIC made its stock market debut at nearly 8 per cent discount, listing at Rs 867.20 per share. The weak market debut resulted in sharp fall of LIC m-cap at Rs 557,675 crore, with a loss of Rs 42,500 crore.

Earlier, LIC's m-cap stood a Rs 600,242 crore at the issue price of Rs 949.