NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday invited request for proposal to hire legal adviser, registrar and advertising agency for the divestment of Life Insurance Corporation, as it intends to complete its listing process by March.
According to Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), request for proposal (RFP) is for legal adviser, advertising agency, book running lead managers and registrar for LIC IPO.
The bid submission end date is August 5, and the bid opening date is August 6. “Not more than one bid shall be submitted by one bidder or bidders having business relationship,” as per the official circular.
The government has already brought in the required legislative amendments in the LIC Act for the proposed IPO. The government has already appointed Deloitte and SBI Caps as pre-IPO transaction advisors. This week the Cabinet approved an initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Earlier DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kant Pandey said that the government intends to complete the listing of LIC by March and the size of the LIC IPO will be larger than any previous issue. He added that the merchant bankers for the initial public offering would be appointed soon.
In the current financial year, government aims to mop-up Rs 1.75 lakh crore from minority stake sales and privatisation. Of the Rs 1.75 lakh crore, Rs 1 lakh crore is to come from selling the government’s stakes in public sector banks and financial institutions. The remaining Rs 75,000 crore would come as CPSE disinvestment receipts. So far the government has barely managed to mop-up Rs 3,994 crore from sale of SUUTI stake in Axis Bank and around Rs 3,700 crore has come in from the share sale in NMDC, among others.