Govt to hire Deloitte, SBI Caps for LIC's IPO

The government is set to hire Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Ltd. and SBI Capital Markets Ltd for the LIC's initial public offering (IPO). According to a report by Bloomberg, the advisers will help evaluate the capital structure of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and will also help the country's biggest insurer in reworking its financial statement.

Moreover, the government will soon invite bid seeking firms to value LIC.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her Budget 2020-21 speech, had said that the government proposed to sell a part of its holding in LIC by way of IPO.LIC posted a sharp rise in premium income in July and August after reporting subdued performance in the first quarter of FY21. The growth in premium income was driven by surge in sales of bigger pension and term assurance policies. The state-run insurer recorded a 40 per cent month-on-month growth in individual premiums in July and August.

Meanwhile, LIC had recently revealed that its gross non-performing asset (NPA) ratio in the debt portfolio has jumped to 8.17 per cent as of March 2020 compared to 6.15 per cent as of March 2019. The total rise in net NPA ratio stood at 0.79 per cent in FY20 as against 0.27 per cent in FY19.

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