欧美文化:State-owned life insurance company files papers for India's largest IPO

MUMBAI, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- India's state-owned life insurance company filed its draft red herring prospectus (DHRP) with the regulator on Sunday to sell 316 million equity shares or 5 percent of its equity.

The sale will be the biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) in the history of Indian capital market.

As per the DHRP, the embedded value of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which is wholly owned by the Indian government, was calculated at 71.5 billion U.S. dollars as on Sept. 31.

The pricing of the IPO of the insurance giant would be disclosed upon the regulator's approval.

LIC has a whopping 66 percent market share in new business premium with 283 million policies and 1.35 million agents as of March 31, 2021, said an official from India's divestment department.

This IPO, which may hit the market and get listed by March, may help the Indian government achieve its revised divestment target of 10.4 billion dollars, which has been brought down from the initial target of 23.2 billion dollars.