At least five domestic mutual funds, SBI, Aditya Birla, ICICI Prudential, HDFC and Kotak, have made commitments in the range of ₹150-1,000 crore each for Life Insurance Corp of India’s initial public offering. While the insurer estimates up to 70 lakh retail applications which is more than five times the average retail applications received for Indian primary equity market issuances in the last financial year, people familiar with the matter told ET.
Singapore’s GIC, and Norges Bank, Norway’s central bank are also likely to agree to participate in the share sale. "All those investors may come both on anchor and main books,” mentioned one of many individuals cited above.
The estimated retail applications reflect exuberance amongst people to own personal shares of the insurance coverage behemoth when it opens for subscription on Wednesday.
This means that the retail bids, including those of the rich, will be at least twice the actual size, pegged at ₹8,603-9,068 going by the price band, the executive added.
The total size of the retail allocation is estimated to be around ₹9,000 crore. The issue price band is in the range of ₹902-949 per share. The rich people in the band will get a subscription of ₹2,674–2,814 crore. Retailers can go for shares worth ₹5,929–6,254 crore.
According to Prime Data Base, 52 firms made a record ₹1.11 lakh crore through IPOs in the last financial year and the average retail subscription stood at ₹14.07 lakh. The data shows that retail applications stood at 12.73 lakh in FY2011 and 6.88 lakh in FY2010.
Meanwhile, according to some media reports, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund in India's holdings as a percentage of its total equity portfolio rose by 30 basis points (bps) year-on-year (YoY) in the calendar year 2021 (CY21) to 1.6 per cent.
The rise in holdings comes amid a sustained selling spree by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) that has dumped Indian shares worth more than $20 billion since last October, the report added.
Norway’s sovereign wealth funds in India's investments were spread across 375 companies at the end of CY21 and had a market value of about $15.8 billion, a 27 per cent increase from $12.4 billion the previous year. The fund invested in 320 Indian firms in 2020.
Norway’s $1.4-trillion sovereign wealth fund holds 1.3 per cent of all the world’s listed companies.
