Business

LIC IPO prompts slew of rule changes; looks to script mega success

Roaring success of LIC IPO is what the government will look to achieve

The next big thing on the financial scenario of the country is definitely going to the Life Insurance Corporation of India’s IPO. The LIC has, over the past so many years, played companion to a good number of people across the country. It’s like almost everyone has opted for some cover offered by the life insurer and people continue to be part of the LIC scheme of things even after so many private insurers had made their advent.

Now with the Union government having decided to let the LIC of India hit the market with an IPO, it is a big step ahead for the life insurer. The government is doing all it can to make the IPO a grand success.

Mega marketing push for LIC IPO

There is a slew of mega ventures being undertaken by the Centre in a bid towards this. If one looks at recent things in this regard, it becomes clear that there has been measures to adjust capital-markets rules, publishing of newspaper advertisements, messages to customers and more so as to ensure LIC of India’s initial public offering turns out to be a roaring success.

The IPO that has been lined up is being placed on a pedestal with expectations to raise close between Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 1 lakh crore this quarter. That itself makes it an astounding size.

However, an IPO of this size would need the best of marketing push too. This could be why the government is looking to up all marketing efforts to the maximum. The newspaper and television advertisements one gets to see of late is a step in this direction and they point to more money being spent on the publicity stuff.

Besides the marketing tsunami that is set to roll in, the government is also looking to amend rules on foreign-direct investment. This could be to attract more investors from abroad to put their money into the issue. It is noteworthy here that, unlike most other insurance companies, LIC does not have the advantage of allowing equity ownership by foreigners in it, as the life insurer is a special entity created by an act of Parliament.

Ads, SMSes, rule changes and more

This is here the amendment of rules would come in handy for the government. So, permitting foreign stake in the humongous IPO would be a move that will help lure added global funds to participate and also let them purchase more after the listing happens in the exchange.

The Indian public has a lot to hope for as the LIC of India has its IPO set for launch. The insurer has been shooting of text messages to policyholders, and also newspaper ads have been proclaiming the arrival of something big. Some of the messages have urged policy holders to update personal details and accounts so that they can participate in the issue too.

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Sanjeev Ramachandran

A journalist with 23 years of experience, Sanjeev has worked with reputed media houses such as Business Standard, The Ne More »
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