New India Assurance IPO oversubscribed

Mumbai, Nov 2: The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the New India Assurance company has been fully subscribed on the first day of the sale. BSE and NSE data indicated that the IPO received bids for just over 12 crore shares on Wednesday, which was 1.05 times the total issue size.

Currently, the government hopes that IPO would fetch RS 9700 crore to the exchequer. The insurance company is selling 12 crore shares with a face value of Rs 5.

The portion of shares reserved for institutional investors saw a subscription of 2.13 times, while that reserved for retail investors and high net-worth individuals (HNIs) saw 0.02 times each.

The New India Assurance Co. Ltd (NIACL) is the oldest(in operation for almost a century) and largest general insurance company in India. The company was nationalized by the GoI on January 1, 1974.

New India Assurance provides insurance across the fire, marine, aviation, motor crop, health, and other insurance. It has the largest market share of 15 percent of gross direct premium among general insurers in India. It issued 27.10 million policies in FY17, highest among all general insurance companies in India.

The IPO of new Insurance would be second largest this year after state-owned General Insurance Corp. of India Ltd's (GIC Re’s) Rs11,372 crore share sale in October.

The offer will close on 3 November and will see a total stake dilution of 14.13%. The IPO of an insurance company is in line with The budget announcement made by Finance minister that the government would list the insurance companies in stock markets.