Bengaluru:
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Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) said it was in the process of strengthening its omnichannel presence in the country with a view to making itself directly and easily accessible to a larger population in the country.
At present, 95% of policyholders come through more than 13 lakh LIC agents, while only a small percentage of people buy policies directly online, the insurer said.
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“We are expecting our omnichannel presence to grow big from now on. Currently, 95% of our policyholders are brought to the system through agency channel,” said MD Mini Ipe.
She said the company had also been witnessing a growth in digital transactions, with 76% of policyholders last year paying premiums online as against 47% in the previous year.
The initial response to LIC’s IPO announcement had been encouraging as about 6.48 crore policyholders had already linked their PAN number with their policy details as of February 28, 2022, well within the cut-off date, said Rahul Jain, Director of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) in the Ministry of Finance.
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These 6.48 crore policyholders are eligible to participate in the IPO if they opened their DMAT accounts. “As of now, through the depositories, we understand that some 1.21 crore DMAT accounts have been opened by policyholders,” Mr. Jain added.
LIC policyholders can invest up to ₹2 lakh in the reservation category and also an equivalent amount in the retail category. Policyholders will get a ₹60 discount and also a 10% reservation in the IPO.
LIC has set a price band of ₹902-949 per equity share. The government intends to raise ₹21,000 crore through the issue. The bid will open on May 4 and close on May 9.
Being one of the largest life insurance companies in the world, LIC had assets worth ₹40 trillion under its management as of December 2021. The company sold 21 million policies in calendar 2021.