The numbers are big and impressive, but the fate of India’s biggest ever listing hinges on its owner pricing the issue just so.
On the very first trading day after the government filed the draft IPO prospectus for Life Insurance Corp. of India, the Sensex plunged 1,747 points, or 3%. It looked like an ominous start for what is slated to be the country’s biggest ever initial public offering.
Shares of One 97 Communications, which operates Paytm, fared worse. The digital payments company, whose record for India’s biggest public offer is set to be broken by LIC, saw its share price dip over 4% to Rs 863.50. It had listed at a price of Rs 2,150 a share in November 2021.
With the …
Prince leads the newsroom at The Morning Context as managing editor. A fascination with the written word has taken Prince to some of the leading newsrooms across the country, including The Economic Times, Dow Jones Newswires, Forbes India and Moneycontrol. In a career spanning 20 years, Prince has led teams, managed pages, projects and special editions, and has authored The Consolidators, published by Penguin Random House in 2017.
Managing Editor
prince@mailtmc.com
Mumbai
Ashwin writes on fintech and banking at The Morning Context. He joins us from The Economic Times, he worked across the finance, tech and startup verticals, breaking stories related to India’s banking system, startups in the new economy, digital payments, insurance and cryptocurrencies.
Writer
ashwin@mailtmc.com
Delhi