In A First, LIC May Invest In Zomato Through Upcoming IPO Route

State-owned behemoth Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is said to be considering a bid for the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of Gurugram-based online food delivery platform Zomato, reports Livemint.

The development gains significance as LIC typically invests in secondary markets unless the public issue is a part of the government’s divestment programme.

It should be noted that Zomato has seen its valuation surge from around $5.4 billion in January to over $8 billion in June. The company is now looking to raise as much as Rs 9,375 crore in a public issue.

The IPO of Deepinder Goyal-led Zomato has gained much interest as it will be the first of a bunch of Indian consumer internet unicorns that will go public in the next few months.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that in the quarter ended 31 March, LIC’s holdings in publicly traded companies dropped to an all-time low of 3.66 per cent of the market value of 296 companies in which its holding is more than 1 per cent. It was 3.7 per cent as of 31 December.