Duane Morris & Selvam Advises on India’s Biggest IPO Ever

SINGAPORE, 24 May 2022 – Duane Morris & Selvam LLP acted as international legal counsel to the President of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on the recent sale of 3.5% of the outstanding shares in LIC by the president of India for approximately US$2.7 billion in an initial public offering in India and concurrent private placements outside India, including a Rule 144A offering in the United States. LIC’s IPO is the biggest in Indian history. The scale of the IPO was immense, with over 7 million applications received from retail investors in India alone. On its listing, LIC was the fifth largest entity in India in terms of market capitalization.

LIC has been providing life insurance in India for more than 65 years and is the largest life insurer in India, with a 61.6% market share in terms of premiums (or GWP); a 61.4% market share in terms of New Business Premium (or NBP); a 71.8% market share in terms of number of individual policies issued; an 88.8% market share in terms of number of group policies issued for the nine months ending December 31, 2021; as well as by the number of individual agents, which comprised 1.33 million individual agents as at December 31, 2021 (which represented 55% of all individual agents in India). LIC had 279.11 million in force policies under individual businesses being serviced in India as of December 31, 2021. LIC is ranked fifth globally in terms of life insurance GWP and 10th globally in terms of total assets.

Duane Morris & Selvam’s team was led by Jamie Benson, a director in the Singapore office and Head of the U.S. capital markets, U.S. venture capital and India practices, and included Hope Krebs, a partner in the Duane Morris Philadelphia office; Lucia Orozco, a senior associate in the Singapore office; and Yeo Ming Ze, an associate in the Singapore office.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted as Indian legal counsel to the president of India and LIC.

The book running lead managers for the IPO were Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, Axis Capital Limited, BofA Securities India Limited, Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities Private Limited, ICICI Securities Limited, JM Financial Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited, SBI Capital Markets Limited. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas acted as Indian legal counsel to the book running lead managers and Linklaters acted as international legal counsel to five of the 10 book running lead managers.

About Duane Morris & Selvam LLP

Duane Morris & Selvam LLP (DMS) is a joint law venture between international firm Duane Morris LLP (DM) and Singapore-based firm Selvam LLC. DMS runs a unique Latin American-Asian practice out of Singapore, with a team of international lawyers qualified in multiple jurisdictions including Singapore, the US, the UK, Canada, Mexico and Colombia, with substantial experience in international transactions and disputes. DMS also has a wide cooperation network with some of the best Latin American and Asian law firms.

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The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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