LIC policyholders open record number of demat accounts

BENGALURU:  State-owned largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to be listed on the bourses on May 17, and it has already generated huge interest among policyholders, as close to 1.21 crore demat accounts have been opened by LIC policyholders.

Rahul Jain, director of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), told TNIE that over 6.48 crore policyholders have linked PAN numbers with their LIC policies before the last cut-off date - February 28, 2022.

“These people are eligible to participate in the IPO if they open their demat accounts. Also, till now a record number of demat accounts have been opened. Through the depositories, we could make out that around 1.21 crore demat accounts have been opened by the policyholders,” Jain said.

LIC has over 28 crore policyholders and life funds of worth Rs 34.3 lakh crore. Policyholders will get a discount of Rs 60 per share, and LIC is expecting a huge participation from them. “There is a fair degree of interest in the LIC IPO from retail investors. We opened nearly 45,000 accounts for the IPO alone last month. Of these, 40% of customers are new to the market,” B Gopkumar, MD & CEO, Axis Securities said.

Gopkumar added that a strong rebound in terms of NBP/APE (New Business Premium/Annual Premium Equivalent) growth enabling market share gains in Q4FY22 hints at strong investor interest before the IPO. Data from two depositories show that 14.2 million new demat accounts were opened in FY21.

Brokerage firm Zerodha told TNIE that the policyholder category is new for everyone and investors have in great numbers linked their PAN with their LIC policy to be eligible for the category in the IPO. Religare Broking has seen a 20-25% rise in retail direct client acquisition in the last month. Close to 34 lakh demat accounts were added in December 2021.