LIC picked up half of Hind Copper shares on offer

The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) picked up nearly half of Hindustan Copper’s shares put on offer for sale (OFS) in November last, stock exchange data revealed on Tuesday. LIC picked up 2.25 crore shares, or 2.43 per cent stake, of the total 5.16 crore shares put on offer.

The Hindustan Copper FPO marked the government’s disinvestment process for the current fiscal.

There were five more insurers that took part in the process, but their combined shareholding, as on December-end, is not more than 0.51 per cent. The OFS got lukewarm response in the initial trading hours of the day, but the share sale picked up towards the end of the day.

As per the stock exchange data, as much as ten financial institutions participated in the share sale and they picked up a total 80.93 lakh shares or 0.87 per cent stake.

Only three foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought a total 0.01 per cent stake in the copper producer.

Individuals have bought 1.69 crore shares or 1.83 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper. This includes participation from 57,465 small investors’ and their combined holding of 1.07 per cent stake.

Corporates also shied away from making big investments in the offer as the data revealed 1,559 corporate bodies now have 59.89 lakh shares or 0.65 per cent holding.

Following the FPO, the government’s stake in the company has now come down to 94.01 per cent from 99.59 per cent earlier. The government had sold 5.58 per cent stake in Hindustan Copper for about Rs.808 crore at an average price of Rs.156.56. It had planned to dilute its stake by 4 per cent in the copper major through the OFS route, with an option of selling an additional 5.9 per cent.