India’s biggest IPO comes to market at the wrong time, KPMG says

THE initial public offering of Life Insurance Corporation of India came at a time when market volatility is high and the country’s largest insurer’s business will continue to outperform with its dominant market share, according to KPMG.

“It continues to remain a very strong company in the insurance sector and has more than 70 per cent market share in India,” Srinivas Balasubramanian, senior partner and head of corporate finance at KPMG India, said in a Bloomberg Television interview on Wednesday. “Unfortunately it came to the market at the wrong point of time.”

India’s state-run insurer plunged 7.8 per cent in its Mumbai trading debut on Tuesday after raising US$2.7 billion in the nation’s largest IPO. The share sale, which was priced at the top end of its range, was well-received by local investors and LIC policyholders. LIC shares were up 0.4 per cent as of 2:35 pm local time on Wednesday.

Balasubramanian, who was involved in the US$18 billion merger between Larsen & Toubro Infotech and Mindtree, expects more acquisitions activity in India’s technology services sector despite the risk-off sentiment.

India offers a high-quality talent pool for the sector and companies need scale to capture more business, he said.

“A lot of larger companies are seeing this as an opportunity to use their larger balance sheets, use their stock as currencies to acquire smaller companies, whether it be adding adjacencies to their existing portfolio or even getting into new sectors,” Balasubramanian said.

SEE ALSO

Insurer LIC slumps in debut after record US$2.7b India IPO

“In my opinion, this will continue to thrive through this year.” BLOOMBERG