New Delhi, February 1: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget 2020-2021, proposed partial disinvestment of Life Insurance Corporation. "The government proposes to sell a part of its holding in LIC by initial public offer (IPO)," Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget 2020. The government will list LIC on the stock exchanges, the largest institutional investor. Budget 2020-21 Live Streaming: Watch Online Telecast of Nirmala Sitharaman Delivering Budgetary Speech And Unveiling 'Bahi Khata'.

This is likely to be the biggest IPO in the country, reports said. The proposal to list LIC is something which will be a big-ticket disinvestment proposal to push revenues of the government. The current year disinvestment could not go beyond Rs 18000 crore. The listing of the company is going to be complicated as it has huge investments in real estate, art and equity market, which may prove to be time-consuming for valuation purposes, an official said.

India's largest life insurer LIC's surplus for 2018-19 increased by 9.9 per cent to Rs 532.14 billion. This was the first time that LIC's surplus crossed the 500-bln-rupee mark.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 01, 2020 01:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).