LIC IPO subscribed 1.79 times on day 5

Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) initial public offering received 1.79 times subscription till May 8, the fifth day of bidding, but the portion reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) is yet to get fully booked. Till Sunday, investors have put in bids for 29.08 crore equity shares, against the offer size of 16.2 crore shares as per the subscription data published on exchanges.

The bids received so far are worth Rs 26,408 crore wherein policyholders and retail investors are neck-to-neck in subscription, putting in bids little more than Rs 9,900 crore worth of shares each. Policyholders have bid 5.04 times the allotted quota and retail investors 1.59 times, while employees bought shares 3.79 times the portion set aside for them, which are worth Rs 542 crore.