State-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) filed its draft prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on 13 February, in what is potentially the country's biggest public offering to date.
"The DRHP of LIC IPO has been filed today with the SEBI," Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey wrote in a tweet.
The largest of India's insurer's is selling 316.25m shares, according to the draft prospectus, which comprised around 5% of the post-offer paid up share capital.
LIC's embedded value was estimated at 5.39trn Indian rupees ($71.56bn).
The huge life insurer had 105,000 full-time employees at the end of September, manages more than $450bn of assets and holds more than 60% of India's life insurance market by premiums.
It also held 61.44bn rupees of government securities and T-Bills at 30 Sept and has put its brand value at $8.66bn.
The government was aiming to raise up to 900bn rupees ($12.2bn) from the LIC stake sale.
India's last IPO by a life insurer was in 2017, when HDFC Life Insurance raised $1.3bn.
Life Insurance came to India from England in 1818 via Oriental Life Insurance Company in Calcutta.
Fast forward to when India passed the Life Insurance Corporation Act on 19 June, 1956 and on September 1 of that year, LIC was formed with a capital contribution of Rs5 crore from the Indian government.
Over 245 insurance companies and provident societies were merged and nationalized to create the state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India.
According to a report by Crisil, LIC currently has 64% market share in India which puts it ahead of the other 23 life insurance companies in the country.
