India’s largest insurance company – LIC has acquired shares worth Rs 5,700 crore in State Bank of India’s Rs 15,000 crore qualified institutional placement (QIP).
LIC got 77 % of the shares that it applied in the QIP issue. “We did not give LIC the full sum they asked for but 77 % of what they asked, which is 38 % of the total QIP,” SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said.LIC’s stake after this investment would be 10.4 %, up from 8.6 %.
SBI Chairman said in the current fiscal the bank will be focusing on listing its life insurance arm. “We have plans of unlocking value by listing at least the life insurance subsidiary. So there will be some more (capital) that we (will) get through our non-core divestments,” she said. It may also consider some stake sale in its non-core assets including CCIL, NSE and UTI MF.
The lender issued 52.2 crore equity shares at a price of Rs 287.25 per share, it said in a stock exchange filing. SBI had originally planned to sell 54.4 crore shares in a price band of Rs 275.76-287.25 per share.
