Indian government closes $3.3B LIC stake sale with 69% uptake
The government just closed its massive about $3.3 billion stake sale in LIC.
While big institutional investors jumped in and pushed the offer size up to 6.5%, regular retail buyers weren't as excited, even with a 10-rupee discount.
Only about 69% of shares set aside for them were picked up.
Small investors buy LIC from market
Some small investors are now choosing to buy shares directly from the market after prices drop, instead of joining big public offers like this one.
LIC's stock was still down 17% from its 2022 IPO price on Wednesday, though it did end the day slightly above the sale's floor price.
LIC sale largest India secondary offering
Despite the lukewarm retail turnout, this was India's biggest-ever secondary share sale on an exchange and second-largest equity fundraising overall.
The stock can potentially attract inflows of about $768 million from passive investors, and there's talk that the government's stake reduction could pave the way for the stock's inclusion in some global equity indexes.