LIC picked up 71 per cent of SAIL shares divested by govt

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) came to government's rescue yet again by acquiring 70.57 per cent of the total offer of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) held on March 22.

LIC, which had 5.023 per cent stake in SAIL, bought additional 169,644,181 shares, or 4.107 per cent stake, through the offer-for-sale (OFS), it said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

This amounts to about Rs 1,069 crore of the total Rs 1,517 crore which the government raised by divesting 24.04 crore shares, or 5.82 per cent, of its stake in SAIL through the OFS route.

LIC now holds 377,115,022 shares, or 9.13 per cent stake, in the company.

With the mega purchase, LIC has helped the government come close to its revised target of raising Rs 24,000 crore through disinvestment this fiscal, ending March 31.

However, this is not the first time that LIC had rescued the government in achieving the disinvestment target. During the last financial year, the state-owned insurer had pumped in close to Rs 12,000 crore during the concluding minutes of government's Rs 12,750 crore equity sale in ONGC.

It has also acquired shares worth over Rs 2,000 crore during the stake sale in NMDC, NTPC, Hindustan Copper, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, Nalco and Oil India during the current financial year.

LIC has been the single largest buyer of shares sold by the government in most of these companies.

For 2012-13, the disinvestment proceeds has been about Rs 23,920 crore, the highest-ever realisation in a single year on this account.

With inputs from PTI