ICICI Prudential’s IPO kick-starts, biggest in six years

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance turned to be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in a span of about 6 years. With investors bidding for 4.08 lakh shares within the first 10 minutes of the bidding process, the company started on a tremendously good note on Monday.

As per the compiled data from BSE and NSE, 0.30% subscription has been received by the issue against the issue size of 13.23 crore shares.
Data also showed retail institutional investors bade for 1.57 shares, while non-institutional investors 2.31 lakh shares. The insurer, on Friday, had allotted Rs 1,635 crore worth of shares to anchor investors and at the upper limit of the price band Rs 300-334; it would receive Rs 4,419 crore from the share sale.

"If were an investor in ICICI Prudential Life, I do not think I would put my money for listing gains because what you are buying is a very strong company and not a stock which is under priced. So if you are buying a very strong company, the real returns comes only when you can hold it for a longer duration and not look for listing gains," said Santosh Singh, BFSI & Head Research, Haitong Securities.

In November 2015, ICICI Prudential had sold 6 per cent of its stake to investors like Azim Premji and Temasek Holdings for an amount of Rs 1,950 crore, valuing the company at Rs 32,500 crore.

ICICI Bank held a 67.6 per cent stake in the life insurance firm, while Prudential Corp Holdings (PCHL) held 25.9 per cent, as of March 31. ICICI Bank will sell its stake in the IPO. However, Prudential will not dilute any of its holding.
(image:EconomicTimes)