- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
India to sell 5% of insurance giant in huge IPO
India plans to sell a five percent stake in insurance giant LIC in what could potentially be the country's largest initial public offering, according to a regulatory filing Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is desperate for proceeds from the IPO of the Life Insurance Corporation of India and the sale of other state assets to help fix its tattered public finances.
Founded in 1956 by nationalising and combining 245 insurers, LIC was synonymous with life insurance in post-independence India for decades until the entry of private companies in 2000.
Despite a steady decline in market share, LIC continues to lead the pack with 64 percent of the life insurance market in the country of 1.4 billion people.
With staff of more than 100,000 people, its vast assets under management of 36.7 trillion rupees ($491 billion) equate to nearly 16 percent of India's gross domestic product.
LIC in turn is one of India's biggest institutional investors, with significant stakes in Indian blue-chip stocks like Reliance, TCS, Infosys and ITC.
According to LIC's draft prospectus filed with the market regulator on Sunday, the government plans to sell around 316 million shares in the IPO, which is expected to take place in March.
While the pricing has not yet been set, analysts expect the IPO to dwarf that of payments firm Paytm, which raised $2.5 billion in November in India's largest public share sale to date.
- Courting first-time investors -
The government hopes LIC's IPO will attract legions of first-time investors to the stock market, in a country where less than five percent of people have trading accounts.
It will be a crucial step in Modi's policy to "monetise and modernise" state-run companies and plug an estimated 16-trillion-rupee budget deficit this financial year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this month, the government drastically cut its divestment target for the current year from 1.75 trillion rupees to 780 billion rupees.
Of this, the government has raised only 120.3 billion rupees by selling stakes in various state-owned entities this financial year, government data shows.
This puts New Delhi on course to miss its privatisation target for a third straight year despite concluding the long-delayed sale of flag carrier Air India to the Tata Group last month.
The IPO of LIC though will require additional transparency of the insurance behemoth's operations, which has more than 2,000 branches and an army of around one million "LIC agents".
LIC's real estate assets include vast offices at prime locations in different Indian cities, including a distinctively curved Art Deco building in Mumbai's financial district and a 15-storey LIC Building in Chennai that was once India's tallest building.
The firm is also believed to own a large collection of rare and valuable artwork that includes paintings by MF Hussain -- known as the Pablo Picasso of India -- although the value of these holdings has not been made public.
Srinath Sridharan, an independent markets commentator, likened LIC to one of India's "family jewels" and said that a successful IPO by the government could pave the way for others.
"If they can get this right, running a large entity and yet having the ability and agility to take care of minority shareholders' concerns, I think... it will be far easier to divest smaller entities, mid-sized entities," Sridharan told AFP.
V.Dantas--PC