LIC soaked up nearly 46 % of RCF shares sold by government
13 Mar 2013
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has once again come to the rescue of the government's divestment programme, picking up 45.86 per cent of the shares sold in Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) in the recent auction.
LIC is reported to have bought 31.6 million shares of RCF, of a total value of Rs142.35 crore, at the recent auction.
LIC had also picked up around 377 million shares of ONGC for around Rs12,000 crore in an offer for sale held last week raising its total stake in the company to 9.48 per cent.
An LIC filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) stated that the state-run insurer had bought 31.6 million of the 69 million shares that were offered by the government.
The government had sold 12.5 per cent of RCF's equity capital through an offer-for-sale, a partial auction, last week, to raise a total of Rs310 crore.
The government had fixed the floor price for the issue at Rs45 apiece, a premium of 2.5 per cent to the then prevailing market price of the scrip.
