LIC emerges as biggest bidder in NSE IPO, applies for shares worth Rs 4,500 crore: Report

NSE IPO: Life Insurance Corp. of India Ltd (LIC) , India's largest insurer, was the biggest bidder in the initial public offer (IPO) of National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE), a report said signaling strong demand from local long-term institutional investors. The state-owned insurer placed bids worth about Rs 4,500 crore ($470 million), Bloomberg said.

ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co. and Quant Mutual Fund deposited bids of about Rs 2000 crore ($209 million) each, while Norges Bank Investment Management and Mirae Asset Mutual Fund placed bids worth Rs 1000 crore each.

The subscription data of the NSE IPO signaled a clear divergence in investor appetite, with institutional investors showing significantly stronger interest than retail participants, said the Bloomberg report.

Large long-term institutional investors emerged as the key drivers of demand, signaling confidence in NSE’s growth prospects over the coming years. Their strong participation came despite concerns around a potential slowdown in derivatives trading activity and NSE’s relatively high valuation compared with several global exchange operators.

Retail investors, however, remained relatively cautious. The portion reserved for retail investors was subscribed around 1.3 times during the IPO, while the qualified institutional buyer (QIB) category was subscribed nearly 12.7 times.

Overall, the $2.4-billion IPO received bids for around 5.7 times the shares on offer, underscoring strong institutional demand while highlighting a more measured approach among individual investors.

NSE raised Rs 6,746.18 crore from 189 anchor investors at Rs 1,785 per share ahead of its public issue on September 16. LIC bought shares worth Rs 400 crore or 5.93% of the anchor book, and emerged as the largest investor in the round.

Other top investors were the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Norway's Government Pension Fund and asset manager Fidelity.

Meanwhile, the offer price of the recently concluded IPO has been fixed at Rs 1,785 per share.  The allotment of shares of the IPO is being held today. The three-day IPO concluded on September 21. The offer for sale (OFS) started on September 17. Investors can check the status of their applications on the websites of the registrar, NSE or BSE.

NSE shares were offered in a price band of Rs 1,700-1,785 per share, with a minimum lot size of eight equity shares and subsequent applications in multiples of eight. The issue raised Rs 22,562 crore from investors and attracted more than 38.4 lakh applications, with bids worth over Rs 90,300 crore.