India govt to list biggest insurer

MUMBAI • Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government surprised investors by saying it will sell part of its stake in state-run behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to meet its record asset-sale target.

Investors likened the proposal to Saudi Aramco, which last December raised about US$25 billion (S$34 billion) in the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) and overtook Microsoft and Apple as the most valuable listed company.

India is targeting to sell the stake in the year starting April 1, Mr Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary for Disinvestment, said in an interview.

Mr Vijay Bhushan, president of the Association of National Exchanges Members of India, said: “The LIC IPO is akin to the Saudi Aramco listing for our capital markets. It will be IPO of the decade.”

Now comes the hard part. LIC, whose total assets of 31 trillion rupees (S$591 billion) exceed that of all Indian mutual funds combined, was set up under a special Act in 1956. The government will have to amend the law, a process that may delay the sale beyond March next year and keep it from meeting its record divestment target of 2.1 trillion rupees.

LIC’s sheer size also makes it hard for the government to sell a big chunk of its holding.

Nervousness was palpable last Saturday as shares of private insurers – SBI Life Insurance, General Insurance Corporation of India, HDFC Life Insurance and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance – slumped by 6 per cent to 14 per cent in a special trading session after the proposal was announced.

“It will become India’s biggest company by market value the day of the listing, given it is the largest company by assets under management,” said ICICI Securities analyst Kajal Gandhi in Mumbai. “Even a 10 per cent dilution will be difficult for the market to absorb in one go.”

The sale can fetch the government between 850 billion rupees and 900 billion rupees, should the IPO get done this year, Credit Suisse analysts led by Mr Neelkanth Mishra wrote in a note.

Insurance stocks have been star performers in recent years. SBI Life was among four insurers whose IPOs raised more than US$1 billion in 2017, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

LIC has been used as an investor of last resort in the past to support the markets by buying shares of state-run companies. It owns double-digit stakes in several publicly traded firms, including Bharat Heavy Electricals and Larsen & Toubro, that are collectively worth more than US$80 billion. Last year, the insurer bailed out IDBI Bank by buying a 51 per cent stake.

The proposal is already facing opposition from the insurer’s staff, the Press Trust of India reported, citing the spokesman for an employees’ union, who said the sale is “against national interest”.

Still, taking LIC public will help instil “discipline” and unlock value, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget speech last Saturday.

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