Govt Likely To Limit Foreign Investment In State-Owned LIC At 20 Per Cent: Report

Gearing up for the nation's largest initial public offering (IPO) to date, the Government is likely to limit the overseas investment in the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India to 20 per cent, as is the case with public sector banks (PSBs), reports Economic Times.

It should be noted that in the case of private sector insurance players, the overseas investment cap stands at a much higher 74 per cent. Also, a cap of 20 per cent will leave a big room for Indian investors, both retail and institutional.

It is unclear for the moment though, if the government will need to take the Parliament's nod for this.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules have already been amended to allow companies with an expected market capitalisation of more than Rs 1 lakh crore at the time of listing to sell only five per cent of their shares against the earlier limit of 10 per cent, a move intended to benefit the LIC stake sale.

The government has also shortlisted 10 merchant bankers, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JP Morgan Chase & Co and ICICI Securities to manage the LIC issue.

Actuarial firm Milliman Advisors LLP India has been engaged in assessing the embedded value of LIC, while Deloitte and SBI Caps have been appointed as pre-IPO transaction advisors.