Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India will issue its initial public offering (IPO) in April instead of March as decided earlier because of ongoing market turbulence, LiveMint reported on Monday citing three officials aware of the change in plans.

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Government is watching the market volatility, due to the Russia-Ukraine war, closely and investor interest will be the key deciding factor for the timing of India's biggest IPO, the report said. The government is looking to sell 5 percent of its stake in the insurer through an offer for sale (OFS) to raise nearly Rs 75,000 crore.

“We will try to do the LIC IPO some time next month, maybe at the end of April. We don’t want to delay it much further. We have a window till 12 May," LiveMint quoted as saying one of the three officials cited above said, adding the government expects the market sentiments weakened by geopolitical tensions to improve in April.

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“There could be some improvement in sentiment as the peak war may get settled," he said.

The second official told LiveMint that volatility had reduced in the past week relative to last month when global indices saw a sharp decline affecting the Indian market as well; however, the sentiments of institutions and retail investors will have to be kept in mind before proceeding with the IPO.

Also Read: Government to file final papers for LIC IPO with Sebi soon

The official said any post-listing turbulence in share price may disappoint retail investors. “We would like to avoid such a situation," he said.

LIC agents are working overtime to ensure that its 280-million-plus policyholders have PAN so that they can link it with new or existing demat accounts and purchase LIC’s shares so that the IPO’s retail quota gets adequately subscribed.

A total of 10 percent of LIC’s shares for retail investors will be reserved for policyholders, and they are likely to get a 10 percent discount on the IPO price. The third official told LiveMint that the government was keen to go ahead with the IPO at the beginning of next fiscal. “We will try to do it before May."

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Mar 14, 2022 11:53 AM IST