The country’s largest-ever initial public offer (IPO) is currently on and the government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure it is a huge success.
The ?21,000 crore IPO of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which opened for bidding on Wednesday, will not be hindered by the weekend holiday as government has asked all bank branches that process IPO bids to stay open on Sunday.
A statement issued today stated that the all banks have to keep their ASBA- designated branches open for the public on Sunday, May 8, to facilitate processing of applications for the LIC IPO.
ASBA refers to Application Supported by Blocked Amount, which is a paperless form of bidding for shares in an IPO. Under ASBA, the bid amount is not debited from the applicant’s bank account but is only kept blocked until the allotment is made.
To be sure, not all bank branches will be open for public on Sunday but only those that are enabled to process ASBA applications for the public issue of LIC, which will close for bidding on Monday.
The public issue of LIC is witnessing a strong response from investors especially the policy holders of the insurance behemoth. The portion reserved for policyholders – they are eligible for a discount of ?60 from the issue price – was more than fully subscribed on Wednesday, the first day for putting in bids.
Till 5pm on Thursday, the portion was subscribed 2.90 times with the employee portion also getting subscribed more than two times. The retail portion has been subscribed 0.87 times while that reserved for high networth individuals was subscribed 0.44 times.
The segment reserved for institutional investors was subscribed 0.40 times till 5pm on Thursday, as per data available on BSE website.
Also read: LIC IPO subscribed 85% on Day 2; policyholders 2.58 times, retail 0.78 times
Also read: Memes flood Twitter as RBI interest hike clashes with LIC IPO day
