How LIC should be valued

The Life Insurance Corporation differs from its listed peers in a number of ways, and these should be factored into its valuation prior to its proposed initial public offering

India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, recently made a groundbreaking announcement proposing the listing of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) through an initial public offering (IPO). LIC is the country’s largest insurer, controlling more than 70 per cent of the market share in terms of the number of policies sold and first-year premiums. Based on media reports, the stake sale is unlikely to be more than 10 per cent, which itself could be divested in multiple tranches considering the expected size.

The proposed listing could prove to be one of the largest IPOs in the Asia-Pacific region; it would