NEW DELHI:India has selected 10 investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and SBI Capital Market to handle the initial public offering of Life Insurance Corp of India, two government sources said, in what is set to be the country’s biggest ever IPO.
The government expects to raise 800 billion-900 billion rupees ($11 bln-12.2 bln) from its stake sale in Life Insurance Corp (LIC), as part of its plans to raise 1.75 trillion rupees from a privatisation programme in the current fiscal year ending in March.
A ministerial panel, called the Alternative Mechanism on strategic Divestment, is expected to decide soon on the size of the stake to be sold. It could be around 10%, sold in two tranches, the two government sources said.
LIC, India’s biggest insurance company with assets of over 34 trillion rupees ($461.4 billion), has a subsidiary in Singapore and joint ventures in Bahrain, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.
“The potential size of the IPO is expected to be far larger than any precedent in Indian markets,” one of the sources said, adding that roadshows would be held in coming months in all major global financial centres to attract investors.
Sixteen banks including seven global banks and nine domestic bank had been in the race to handle the IPO.
The other selected lenders are JM Financial Ltd, Axis Capital, Nomura, BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan India Pvt Ltd, ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra, said the source, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
JP Morgan, Citigroup, BofA and Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while Nomura, JM Finance, Axis, Kotak and others were not immediately available for a comment.
A finance ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
The government would make all efforts to attract retail investors and employees to invest in the company, one of the sources said.
($1 = 73.7450 Indian rupees)
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