Reliance Nippon Life's Sunil Agrawal named CFO of LIC ahead of mega IPO

Prior to Agrawal's appointment, Shubhangi Sanjay Soman was executive director, finance and accounting. The position of Executive director F&A has been changed to CFO as LIC gets set to list

Ahead of its public listing, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has appointed Sunil Agrawal as the chief financial officer (CFO) of the corporation.

Prior to Agrawal’s appointment, Shubhangi Sanjay Soman was the executive director in charge of finance and accounting (F&A) at the corporation. The position of Executive director F&A has been changed to CFO as the corporation is preparing to get listed on the bourses.

LIC had invited applications for the post of CFO in September last year. The insurer had said in a public notice that the post of CFO would be a contractual, with a three-year term or till the person concerned reaches the age of 63. Further, remuneration for the post would be Rs 75 lakh per annum, the public notice had said.

An email sent to LIC seeking comments on the appointment of Agrawal did not elicit a response.

Agrawal was earlier the CFO of Reliance Nippon Life Insurance for over 12 years. Prior to that, he was associated with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance for 5 years.

The public listing of LIC has come under some cloud due to the geopolitical tensions globally, following the military action by Russia in Ukraine. Business Standard reported that a group of ministers in the Indian government are likely to meet this week and take a call on whether to defer the IPO of the insurance behemoth, given the volatility in the stock markets following the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine.

LIC had filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on February 13. The market regulator’s approval for the DRHP is expected to be received soon. Through the IPO, the India government is looking to sell 5 per cent stake or 316 million shares in LIC. The embedded valuation of the insurer has been estimated at Rs 5.39 trillion.