‘Strong interest from domestic investors’

MUMBAI: Ahead of the launch of its mega IPO, LIC chairman M.R. Kumar spoke about the investor demand for the IPO; the insurer’s plan to retain a minority stake in IDBI Bank for its bancassurance network, why the agent network will continue to remain strong support for the company’s growth and concerns around its valuation. Edited excerpts:

What is the investor interest for the IPO looking like, especially foreign funds, given the market scenario?

Investor interest is quite good, especially from domestic investors. FIIS do have concerns about the markets, but the long-only funds don’t mind. They are not parking money to sell it in a year or so. We have received good interest from these kinds of investors.

Do you think the ₹21,000 crore public float would limit your inclusion in certain important indices such as MSCI and thus affect FII flows into your stock?

That is something that we will have to wait and see. Even if we say the right size, it is still the biggest IPO. Anything bigger than this would have been difficult for the market to absorb. So, we had to take a call. We said we do this now and then see what happens. Maybe we don’t get listed on MSCI; maybe we get listed on Sensex or Nifty or 100 or 200. we will get listed somewhere, and then we work our way upwards.

What is the stand on the sale of your stake in IDBI Bank? What are the timelines for the stake sale?

About 15-20% is something that we would like to have. This business is growing very fast. Most of the bancassurance business is through IDBI now. They (the government) have started talking to potential investors. Like the LIC IPO, that is also quite big. Not one investor can pitch in and take it all, so they will have to look at a group. They are exploring the possibilities.