Over 59 million shares reserved for anchor investors in LIC IPO

　　div classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodivpBy Nupur Anandp

　　pMUMBAI Reuters – The IPO of Life Insurance Corporation LIC, Indias biggest insurer, has got off to a strong start, with 59.3 million shares that were set aside for anchor investors being subscribed at 949 rupees apiece, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday.pdivdivdiv classBodysc17zpet90 cdBBJodiv

　　pThe Indian government has said it expects to raise up to 2.74 billion, just a third of its original target, from selling a 3.5 stake in LIC in the countrys biggest initial public offering IPO.p

　　pAnchor investors are highprofile institutional investors that are allotted shares before the subscription opens for retail and other investors, and have to commit to holding their shares for a certain period after listing.p

　　pLICs offering is set to open for other investors on May 4 and will close on May 9. The indicative price range has been set at 902 to 949 rupees per share, with 56 billion rupees 732 million of shares set aside for anchor investors.

　　Norwegian wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management and the Government of Singapore are among the subscribers to the anchor book, the filing showed.

　　Alongside other global funds, domestic mutual fund houses such as HDFC mutual fund, SBI, ICICI and Kotak have also come in as anchor investors.

　　Over 20 investors had expressed interest in subscribing to the anchor book, according to two banking sources

　　Foreign institutional investors had some concerns about LIC‘s IPO, but global pension funds had shown “good interest,” LIC’s chairman said last week.

　　1 76.5150 Indian rupeesp

　　1 76.4640 Indian rupeesp

　　pp Reporting by Nupur Anand and Maria Ponnezhath Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Mark Potter and Anil DSilvap

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