Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. On the third day on Friday of bidding for LIC's mega IPO, the portion reserved for retail investors was fully subscribed, but the portions allocated for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) and non-institutional investors (NIIs) saw a lukewarm response. The overall issue was subscribed 1.38 times. Against 16,20,78,067 shares on offer, 22,36,98,915 bids were received. Subscription for non-institutional investors' segment stood at 76 per cent, while that for QIBs' portion was lower at 56 per cent.

Issue will remain open for subscription on Saturday

Retail investors bid for 8.53 crore shares as against 6.9 crore shares set aside for this segment -- translating into oversubscription of 1.23 times. Of the total, the policyholders' portion was subscribed a little over four times, while that for employees was subscribed three times. The public issue will remain open for subscription on Saturday, May 7 as well. The last day of the offer, which has a price band of Rs 902-949 per share, will be May 9.

Employees to get a discount of Rs 45 per equity share

The offer includes a reservation for eligible employees and policyholders. The retail investors and eligible employees will get a discount of Rs 45 per equity share, while policyholders will get a discount of Rs 60 per share. The government aims to generate about Rs 21,000 crore by diluting 3.5 per cent stake in the insurance behemoth. LIC reduced its IPO size to 3.5 per cent from 5 per cent decided earlier due to the prevailing choppy market conditions. Even after the reduced size of about Rs 20,557 crore, LIC IPO is going to be the biggest initial public offering ever in the country.