Small-town retail investors with an emotional attachment to India’s oldest insurer and its long-loyal policyholders will likely prop up demand for the country’s largest-ever initial public offering, even as jittery markets forced the deal size to be slashed by more than half.
State-run Life Insurance Corporation of India is taking orders from retail investors between May 4 through May 9 in a listing that could, at the new reduced price range, raise up to $2.7 billion. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising U.S. interest rates are putting foreign funds off emerging market stocks, but investment advisers say the mammoth insurer’s float will likely be lapped up by mom-and-pop investors.
