The scope of the mandate includes advising the Centre on the modalities of the IPO and the timing, and arriving at an optimal capital structure.
The government has picked Edelweiss Financial Services
Ltd and Deloitte as the two pre-initial public offer (IPO) transaction advisors
for the listing of the country’s biggest insurer – Life Insurance Corporation
of India (LIC), whose public offer is expected to be the largest ever in the
history of the domestic capital markets, two individuals told
Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity.
The scope of the mandate includes advising the Centre on
the modalities of the IPO and the timing, arriving at an optimal capital
structure, preparing restated consolidated financial statements for the past
three years for LIC and its subsidiaries, structuring the transaction
amongst other aspects.
Edelweiss Financial Services and Deloitte were
unavailable for immediate comment.
On June 19, 2020, the Department of Investment and Public
Asset Management (Dipam) under the Finance Ministry has issued a request for
proposal (RFP), seeking to engage pre-transaction advisors for partial
disinvestment of the government’s equity shareholding in LIC through an IPO.
The notification said that it proposed to
engage up to two pre-IPO transaction advisors from “reputed professional consulting
firms/ investment bankers/ merchant bankers/ financial institutions/ banks,
independently (not in consortium) for facilitating or assisting DIPAM in the
preparatory processes leading to the IPO of LIC India.”
It added that to qualify as an advisor for the pre-IPO
deal, the bidder should have an experience of handling at least one IPO of a
minimum size of Rs 5,000 crore between April 1, 2017, and March 31, 2020, or
should have managed a capital market transaction of Rs 15,000 crore or more
during this period.” According to the request for proposal, the government has
95 percent stake in LIC.
In the Union Budget speech for 2020-21, Finance
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said, "Listing of companies on stock
exchanges disciplines the company and provides access to financial markets and
unlocks its value. It also gives an opportunity for retail investors to
participate in the wealth so created. The government now proposes to sell a
part of its holding in LIC by way of Initial Public Offer (IPO)."

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