New Delhi:
11 investment bankers are in the race to be the pre IPO transaction advisors (TA’s) for the proposed mega IPO of the life insurance behemoth, Life Insurance Corporation.
These entities include Axis Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, CLSA, Credit Suisse Securities, Deloitte India, Edelweiss Financial Services, IDFC Securities, IIFL Securities, JM Financial, SBI Capital Markets and YES Securities.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam), the nodal agency for conducting divestments,has done the `beauty parade’ of the investment bankers on Friday, to select a few players who will be involved in massive exercise, including preparing prospectus, with extensive disclosures, to be filed with the capital market regulator Sebi,to list the LIC.
The government will also rope in an actuarial advisor to undertake the valuations exercise LICs business as part of IPO,
LIC’s IPO is expected to be the largest in the domestic capital markets and time line for the IPO is not yet known though Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her 2020-21 budget speech had announced that the proposed IPO which would contribute majorly in this financial year’s ambitious Rs 2.1-trillion disinvestment target
Currently, the government is the sole owner of the LIC which is by the LIC Act,1956 which needs to be amended before starting the process.
The LIC Act, in its present form, disallows listing of the LIC.