Fin Ministry invites bids from transaction advisors for LIC IPO

NEW DELHI: Kick-starting the process of LIC disinvestment, the Finance Ministry on Friday invited bids from consulting firms, investment bankers, and financial institutions for advising it on the proposed initial public offer.

The government proposes to engage up to two pre-ipo transaction advisors, for assisting the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management in the preparatory processes leading to the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI), tipped to be the largest ever in the country.

The government “proposes to engage up to two pre-ipo Transaction Advisor(s) from reputed professional consulting firms/ investment bankers/ merchant bankers/ financial institutions/ banks, independently (not in the consortium) for facilitating/assisting DIPAM in the preparatory processes leading to the IPO of LICI, the Finance Ministry said in the Request For Proposal (RFP) for engaging pre-ipo transaction advisors.

The advisors can submit their bids beginning Friday, till July 13, 2020. The bids would be opened by DIPAM on July 14. The advisor would ensure preparatory aspects of the proposed IPO and would, advise and assist the government on modalities of IPO and the timing; structuring the transaction; organizing non-deal roadshows, suggesting measures to fetch optimum value; positioning of the minority sale, among others, the RFP said.