Will LIC list at discount? Here is what GMP signals ahead of shares listing

New Delhi, May 16 (PTI) The country's largest insurer LIC will list its shares on the stock exchanges on Tuesday after witnessing a good response from domestic investors in the initial share sale, which fetched Rs 20,557 crore to the government.

The government had fixed the issue price of LIC shares at Rs 949 apiece for allotment to investors. LIC policyholders and retail investors have got the shares at a price of Rs 889 and Rs 904 apiece, respectively, after taking into account the discount offered.

As per market observers, LIC shares continue to trade at a discount in the range of ₹13-₹19 in the grey market today. The grey market discount indicates that the stock may have a moderate to discounted listing.

Current market situations such as increased inflation statistics, FII outflows, currency weakness, geopolitical reasons, and rate hike-related worries might lead to a "flat" listing. However, the stock's modest float may limit the stock's post-listing decline.

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) closed on May 9 and shares were allocated to bidders on May 12. The government sold over 22.13 crore shares or a 3.5 per cent stake in LIC through the IPO. The price band of the issue was Rs 902-949 a share. However, shares were allocated to investors on May 12 at the upper end of the price band.

The shares will list on the BSE and NSE on May 17.

The LIC IPO -- India's largest to date -- closed with nearly 3 times subscription, predominately lapped up by retail and institutional buyers, but foreign investor participation remained muted.

So far, the amount mobilised from the Paytm IPO in 2021 was the largest ever at Rs 18,300 crore, followed by Coal India (2010) at nearly Rs 15,500 crore and Reliance Power (2008) at Rs 11,700 crore.

LIC had last month reduced its IPO size to 3.5 per cent from 5 per cent decided earlier due to the prevailing choppy market conditions. Even after the reduced size of over Rs 20,557 crore, the LIC IPO is the biggest initial public offering ever in the country.

The share sale was initially planned to hit the markets in March. But the uncertainty in stock markets due to the Russia-Ukraine war pushed the issue to the current fiscal, which began in April.

The proceeds from the LIC issue make up for about a third of the Rs 65,000 crore disinvestment target set for the current fiscal.

While it has already raised Rs 3,058 crore from a minority share sale in ONGC, Rs 211.14 crore is likely to come in after the handover of Pawan Hans management control to M/s Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd, a consortium of M/s Big Charter Private Limited, M/s Maharaja Aviation Private Limited and M/s Almas Global Opportunity Fund SPC, by June. In the last fiscal, the government mopped up Rs 13,531 crore from CPSE disinvestment, against the revised scaled-down target of Rs 78,000 crore.