The initial public offering, or IPO, of the Life Insurance Corporation will open on May 4 and continue till May 9, Tuhin Kant Pandey, the secretary of Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, said on Wednesday, reported ANI.

“We will call it LIC 3.0 phase,” the official said at a press conference.

The price band will be Rs 902 to Rs 949 per equity share. For anchor investors, the IPO will open on May 2, NDTV reported.

An initial public offering is a process in which private companies offer shares to the public by issuing new stocks. At the end of the IPO process, the company gets listed on the stock exchange and is allowed to raise capital from public investors.

Advertisement

Anchor investors are institutional investors who are allotted shares in a company ahead of its IPO.

The state-owned company is likely to be listed on stock exchanges on May 17, according to NDTV. The Union government hopes to raise Rs 21,000 crore through the public offer.

At the press briefing, Pandey said that this will be the largest IPO in India, according to Moneycontrol. He said he expected strong retail participation in it.

The government has also announced a discount of Rs 60 per share to applicants who have an LIC policy, Mint reported. However, this will only apply to individuals who bought the policy on or before April 13, which was when LIC had filed its draft red herring prospectus with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board.

Advertisement

A draft red herring prospectus is a preliminary registration document through which a company allows potential investors to make decisions on whether to buy equity shares.

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management has also announced a discount of Rs 45 per share for LIC employees.

As many as 15,81,249 shares will be reserved for employees and 2,21,37,492 shares will be reserved for policyholders.