The market value of Life Insurance Corporation’s (LIC) stake in India’s top conglomerates has witnessed a sharp rise in the past year, with Reliance Industries and Tata group companies topping the valuation charts, according to a report by Business Standard. It also noted that the value of investments in Adani firms more than doubled in the past year.
LIC’s stake in Reliance Industries was valued at ₹1.09 trillion as on Tuesday versus ₹98,342 crore a year ago (November 12, 2021); its stake in various Tata group companies was worth ₹88,389 crore against ₹84,015 crore a year ago, informed the report. Also, its investment in the Adani group of companies is valued at ₹77,562 crore, benefitting from the rise in the value of the group companies’ shares in the past year. A year ago, its investments in Adani firms were valued ₹32,106 crore, it added.
Meanwhile, the report further stated that the value of LIC’s stake in tobacco major ITC rose to ₹66,393 crore on Tuesday, as compared to ₹46,615 crore a year ago.
"In the ongoing (December 2022) quarter, LIC increased its stake in Voltas, a Tata group company, from 6.86 percent to 8.88 percent. The corporation also increased its stake in Tata Motors marginally to 5 percent, according to data submitted by LIC to the stock exchanges since October 1. It diluted its stake in Tata Chemicals from 7.09 percent to 5.06 percent," noted the report
However, the corporation reduced its stake in Adani Ports from 11.3 percent in December 2019 to 9.3 percent, thus booking profits in the company’s shares, according to a LIC notice to the stock exchange on November 14, the report pointed out.
The insurer reported an 8.6 percent YoY growth in its assets under management to ₹42.93 trillion as of September this year and is the largest investor in Indian companies among local institutional investors. As much as 25 percent of this corpus is invested in equity investments, noted the report.
In the financial year ended March this year, LIC realised gains worth ₹42,000 crore from its investment in the equity markets, an increase of 16.6 percent from ₹36,000 crore reported in the financial year ended March 2021, it further said.
