Global Market Selloff Raises Stakes for India’s Biggest IPO

  • India aims to sell 5% in LIC, must raise about $8 billion
  • Two-thirds of issue to be sold to anchor and retail investors

Pedestrians pass a Life Insurance Corp. of India branch office in Mumbai, India.

Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
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India is pushing ahead with the nation’s largest initial public offering, a mammoth task made even tougher by inflationary concerns and a challenging global market for investors.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government plans to sell a 5% stake in Life Insurance Corp. of India and must raise about 600 billion rupees ($7.96 billion) to help fill a gaping budget deficit. Even at a scaled down version of its original blueprint, which at one point aimed for more than $10 billion, the offering could be a hard sell.