With the volatile market scenario amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict for the much-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (LIC DIPAM) said on Monday that There is strong investor interest for the state-run company’s offering, but the Center will go ahead with the IPO only if it is confident of successfully listing the insurer.
Speaking at the Mint India Investment Summit 2022, Pandey expressed confidence in the progress of the government’s asset monetization plan and said there is a “good prospect” of achieving the target. 88,000 crore of asset monetization for FY22.
He also informed that DIPAM has received Multiple Expression of Interest (EoI) for privatization of HLL Lifecare Limited (HLL).
Talking about the LIC IPO, he observed that the filing of DRHP was well within the anticipated time frame, but the current volatile market scenario is a result of unforeseen global events emerging from geopolitical tensions, which the government is closely monitoring. Still working.
“LIC IPO is a big offering and we want it to go well. Certainly, we have the enthusiasm. In terms of timing, we are watching the market closely. We can take it easy as soon as we feel like it. Le Jayenge, we will definitely bring it. Bandh,” Pandey said during a fireside chat at the incident.
He also said that the financial results of the company for the quarter ended December would also be submitted to SEBI as an addendum to DRHP.
Mint reported on Monday that LIC will go public in April instead of March as was decided earlier as the ongoing market unrest has the government worried about India’s biggest initial public offering.
Although the Securities and Exchange Board of India has approved LIC’s IPO in a record 22 days, the government requires a minimum of 15 days for the anchor investors to sign on before the sale starts for retail investors and policyholders.
Regarding the impact of the pandemic on LIC disinvestment, the Secretary said that the pandemic and its multiple waves particularly affected the strategic disinvestment processes as they require due diligence, site visits, engagement with the investors.
However, he added that the disinvestment process is now “back on track”.
On the government’s policy of privatization, he said: “The more stable the policy of privatization, the longer it is a measurable one.”
He further said that one of the main objectives of the government’s privatization policy is to increase the economic and job creation potential of public sector companies.
Speaking on the National Asset Monetization Programme, he said that every department has given thrust to the program and some departments have so far made more progress in terms of asset monetization than others. He also said that the idea of asset monetization is to increase capital expenditure and this has a significant impact on the economy.
He said that the Ministry of Road Transport and National Highways has monetised the assets of 17,000 crore while Rs 1,300 crore has been raised from airports.
On the special purpose vehicle recently approved by the Union Cabinet for monetization of land assets, he said that many CPSEs who have large parcels of unused land have not been able to dispose of them and no ministry has access to these properties. The organization does not have the capacity to handle monetization. Therefore, the SPV will take up the process of taking the process forward in a more coordinated manner.
He said that the Department of Public Enterprises is interested in setting up this SPV in the future.
Last week, the Union Cabinet approved setting up of National Land Monetization Corporation (NLMC) to monetise surplus land and building assets of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and other government agencies.
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