CICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd offered 132.37 million shares in its initial public offering (IPO) last month—the first by an Indian insurer.
By the time it closed on 21 September, the IPO attracted demand for 10.44 times the shares on offer.
The IPO raised Rs6,057 crore, making it the largest initial share sale since state-owned Coal India Ltd, the world’s biggest coal miner, raised Rs15,000 crore in 2010.
“ICICI Prudential Life’s IPO had a fantastic outcome. It reiterates that size is not a constraint for good assets and investors—across categories—have appetite for quality issuances,” said Anup Bagchi, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Securities Ltd, one of the managers of the share sale.
Bagchi’s enthusiasm is justified. In the first nine months of 2016, 21 IPOs cutting across sectors have raised Rs19,379.10 crore, the highest for the January-September period since 2007, when 81 IPOs raised Rs28,993.65 crore.
