E-Paper
Goldman Sachs, Citi, 8 others make the cut for LIC share sale mandate
Others who will handle India’s largest-ever initial public offering are Bank of America, Nomura, Axis Capital, JM Financial, ICICI Securities.
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital and SBI Capital are among 10 investment banks who will manage the mega public listing of state-run Life Insurance Corp. of India, said two people aware of the development.
Others who will handle India’s largest-ever initial public offering are Bank of America, Nomura, Axis Capital, JM Financial, ICICI Securities.
The 10 merchant banks were chosen from 16 who made presentations to an inter ministerial group, the people cited above said, requesting anonymity.
Mint reported on August 11 that 18 investment banks are competing to manage LIC’s initial share sale.
Two of these banks did not make the cut for the round of presentations.
The banks were scored on various parameters such as the experience of handling initial public offerings (IPOs) larger than ₹5,000 crore, expertise in life insurance, qualification of team members, marketing strategy, strength in drawing retail participation, and global distribution capabilities.
Banks also had to indicate the valuation approaches to be followed in determining the IPO price, along with an estimated value. A mere 10% stake in LIC is estimated to be worth at least ₹1 lakh crore, which will make it one of the most valuable companies in India, Mint had reported.
Unlike in the past when banks would quote as low as ₹1 to bag marquee government divestment deals, in the case of the LIC IPO, a minimum fee of ₹1 crore has been fixed for each bank in the final syndicate.
To elicit wider retail investor participation, the government has decided to bear expenses concerning the payment of brokerage fees.
The brokerage will be 0.35% on allotment to retail investors, 0.15% on allotment to non-institutional investors, and 0.25% on allotment to eligible staff or policyholders. Processing fees for UPI and applications supported by blocked accounts will also be borne by LIC or the government, given the expectation of large retail participation.
