Aramco-Style Dividend Is What LIC Investors Seek Post Flop Debut
- Indian insurer slid 7.8% on debut after country’s record sale
- Offering was central to PM Modi’s state-asset sale program
A Life Insurance Corp. of India branch office in Mumbai.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Disappointed by a 7.8% plunge that made for the world’s second-worst trading debut among large IPOs this year, shareholders of state-run Life Insurance Corp. of India will be counting on a bumper dividend if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants them to stay put.
The 65-year-old insurer, a household name in the country known as LIC, raised $2.7 billion last week in the country’s biggest initial public offering. After pricing at 949 rupees ($12.2) apiece, the top end of a marketed range, the stock plunged as much as 9.4% to 860 rupees in opening minutes on Tuesday, before paring losses. It was about 1% in early trading on Wednesday.