New Delhi: Budget 2020 announcement that insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) be listed was well received by market participants who said this will be ‘IPO of the decade’ akin to the Saudi Aramco listing.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said LIC will be listed as part of the government disinvestment initiative.
“A highlight of the budget is the LIC IPO, which is akin to the Saudi Aramco listing for Indian capital markets, and will be the initial public offer of the decade,” Vijay Bhushan, President, Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) said.
According to Krishna Kumar Karwa, MD, ‘Emkay Global Financial Services’, the LIC IPO will be a big positive for corporate governance and transparency and will open up one more avenue for fund raising for the government over the years.
Metropolitan Stock Exchange, interim CEO, Balu Nair said: “The LIC listing will be eagerly awaited by investors and will provide huge fillip to capital raising through the primary market.”
The government proposes to sell a part of its holding in LIC through an initial public offer, Sitharaman said while presenting Budget 2020-21.
“The government will sell part of LIC through its listing in the stock market which is also a positive trigger for the market,” Amit Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, ‘TradingBells’.
Jaideep Hansraj, MD and CEO of Kotak Securities said listing of LIC would help bridge a gap in the Fiscal Deficit for FY21.
Currently, the government owns the entire 100 per cent stake in LIC.
However, the Karnataka unit of the opposition Congress slammed the NDA government for the proposed selling of its equity stake in LIC.
“Another blunder of the (NDA) government is the announcement of selling stake in LIC. This is again a bid to privatise LIC and open it to private parties, putting people’s deposits in danger,” tweeted the party’s state unit here.
Agencies