The government offloaded 6.54 per cent in the Life Insurance Corporation of India and got over ₹31,000 crore.
With the completion of LIC’s ‘Offer for Sale’ on Wednesday, money collected under the ‘miscellaneous receipts’ touched nearly two-thirds of the budget estimates for FY27. Also, proceeds from disinvestment are the highest in eight years.The government offloaded 6.54 per cent of its stake in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and raised over ₹31,000 crore. With this, total proceeds from disinvestment crossed ₹52,000 crore, the highest since fiscal year 2018-19, when the mop-up was around ₹85,000 crore.Notably, the term ‘disinvestment’ is no longer part of the budget document and proceeds from stake sale are included under the ‘miscellaneous receipts’ for which the FY27 budget estimate is ₹80,000 crore. This head also includes earnings from asset monetisation.Strong investor response prompts green shoe optionOFS for LIC took place in two phases. On August 4, non-retail investors were asked to bid. OFS received an overwhelming response from institutional investors and was oversubscribed 3.32 times its base size. Based on that, the government decided to exercise the green shoe option to offload 4 per cent, taking the total stake to be offloaded to 6.54 per cent (including a 50 lakh or 0.04 per cent stake for employees).Retail investors and eligible Employees of the Corporation were able to bid (after a discount of ₹10 per equity share) at ₹373.10 per equity share. The cut-off Price for the non-retail Investors remained unchanged at ₹383.10 per equity share.LIC achieves public shareholding milestone ahead of scheduleOFS has helped the LIC to achieve minimum public shareholding (MPS) milestones ahead of schedule. The revised timeline for achieving 10 per cent public shareholding was on or before May 16, 2027. At present, public holding is 3.5 per cent, which will increase to 10 per cent after completion of the OFS.According to DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla, LIC is the cornerstone of the country’s financial sector, serving as India’s largest life insurer and the country’s second-largest public sector enterprise by market capitalisation.“Its institutional eminence is recognised both domestically and globally, with LIC ranked as the fourth most valuable brand in India and the world’s third-strongest insurance brand,” he said. LIC’s OFS is the 9th during the current fiscal year.Published on August 5, 2026
