Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (Photo | EPS)
NEW DELHI: The preparatory activities are on track for Life Insurance Corporation’s initial public offer (IPO) in the current quarter. This was the broad conclusion of the meeting called by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to review the progress of LIC’s IPO.
The meeting was also attended by Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Debasish Panda, and senior LIC officials.
Sources from the finance ministry told TNIE that the much-awaited IPO of state-owned life insurer is very much on track to be completed in the current financial year.
The government plans to partially disinvest its shareholding through the proposed listing of shares of LIC.
The government holds 100% in LIC, and it is likely that it will initially divest 10% of the stake in the company through the proposed listing.
The LIC IPO has been in the making for a long time, and given the large size of the company and its special status due to the LIC Act, the government had to make some legislative changes to get it IPO ready. And the work is still on.
On Thursday, Secretary in the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Anurag Jain said that the government is working on further simplification of FDI policy to facilitate LIC disinvestment.
Meanwhile, the finance minister also reviewed the performance of public sector banks. In the meeting which was attended by chairman and managing directors of PSBs, the finance minister assessed various steps taken by PSBs in implementing pandemic-related measures initiated by the government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and readiness to tackle possible future disruptions that may occur due to the ongoing variant of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She appreciated the banks for implementation of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), which according to an SBI report, helped save 13.5 lakh MSMEs.
To be completed in this fiscal
Sources from the finance ministry told TNIE that the much-awaited IPO of state-owned life insurer is very much on track to be completed in the current financial year.
