Preparing for its initial public offering, Life Insurance Corporation of India is expected to file its draft documents with SEBI on Thursday (February 10).

“LIC is likely to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI on February 10. The preparations for listing are well underway and the life insurer is expected to launch its IPO within this fiscal – in March,” said a person familiar with the development.

The draft documents are expected to have updated financial details of LIC for the six months of the fiscal till September 30, 2021.

About 10 per cent of the offer is likely to be reserved for eligible policyholders.

However, those policyholders who have not updated their PAN details with LIC before expiry of two weeks of the date of the filing of the DRHP with SEBI may not be considered eligible to bid in the IPO.

The maximum bid amount for policyholders would be capped at ₹2 lakh.

Eligible policyholders, retail bidders and eligible employees will also be given a discount and are likely to be able to bid at the cut-off price.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the Union Budget 2022-23 that the LIC IPO is expected shortly.

The share sale will help the Centre meet its revised target from disinvestment proceeds of ₹78,000 crore for the fiscal year.

All the proceeds from the listing are expected to flow in to the Exchequer and LIC is unlikely to receive any of the funds.

LIC is the largest life insurer in the country with assets under management estimated at ₹38,00,000 crore as on September 30, 2021.

For January 2022, LIC reported a 1.58 per cent year on year drop in first year premium to Rs 12,936.28 crore. However, it remains the dominant player with 61.16 per cent market share.

The government has appointed 10 merchant bankers including Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, and Nomura Financial Advisory to manage the sale.

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