Announcing the successful completion of the share sale on Wednesday, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Arunish Chawla said the OFS was oversubscribed on both days and that the government exercised its entire greenshoe option.
Offer for Sale in the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) closed with an overwhelming response from both retail and institutional investors. The issue was over-subscribed on both days and the Government exercised its entire green shoe option. With this the public ownership… pic.twitter.com/TQZNQhfi3X
— Secretary, DIPAM (@SecyDIPAM) August 5, 2026
A total of 82,23,33,558 shares were allocated through the OFS, mobilising ₹31,552 crore in what DIPAM described as India’s largest public offering ever.
With the completion of the transaction, public shareholding in LIC has increased to 10%, while the government’s stake has reduced to 90%, bringing the insurer into compliance with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) norms well before the May 2027 deadline.
Chawla thanked investors for their enthusiastic participation and said the strong response reflected continued confidence in LIC as well as the government’s disinvestment programme.
The OFS opened for non-retail investors on Tuesday, followed by the retail portion on Wednesday. The institutional tranche was subscribed 3.32 times the base issue size, prompting the government to exercise the entire greenshoe option.
The Centre had initially offered a 2.5% stake, with an option to sell an additional 4%, taking the total offer size to 6.5% of LIC’s equity. The floor price for the OFS was fixed at ₹382 per share.
CNBC-TV18 had reported exclusively on Tuesday that the government has assured stakeholders there would be no further dilution of its stake in LIC for the next two to three years after the completion of the current OFS.
The transaction marks another milestone in the government’s disinvestment programme, which aims to unlock value from public sector enterprises while expanding retail and institutional ownership.
Prior to the OFS, the Centre held a 96.5% stake in LIC following the insurer’s landmark IPO in May 2022, when it sold a 3.5% stake at a price band of ₹902-949 per share and raised around ₹21,000 crore.
As of the June quarter, LIC had around 21 lakh small retail shareholders, defined as investors holding authorised share capital of up to ₹2 lakh, collectively owning about 1.5% of the company.
Before the LIC transaction, the government had mobilised ₹21,082 crore during the current financial year through stake sales in public sector undertakings and remittances from the Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).
The successful LIC OFS significantly boosts the Centre’s disinvestment receipts while widening public ownership in India’s largest life insurer.
Shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) ended Wednesday’s session 0.54% higher at ₹393.40 on the NSE.
Also Read: LIC OFS opens for retail investors today – Here’s how you can subscribe to it
