Life Insurance Corporation, India's largest insurer, is likely to file a draft prospectus as early as end of this month and begin issuing public shares by mid-March, one government and two banking sources with direct knowledge of the matter in New Delhi and Mumbai told Reuters.

       The listing of LIC is set to be India's biggest ever IPO, with the government aiming to raise up to Rs 90,000 crore ($12.18 billion) from its stake sale.

       Business Standard recently reported, while quoting an official, that the Government-appointed actuary has pegged the embedded value (EV) of the Life Insurance Corporation of India at Rs 4-5 trillion, a key parameter that will be used to compute the market valuation of India’s largest insurer.

       The computation of the EV is key for the launch of LIC’s initial public offering (IPO) slated to be held in March, and such an exercise has been undertaken for the first time since the life insurer’s inception.

       The EV is the sum of adjusted net worth and value of in-force business or estimated future profits.

       The EV has been shared with the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) as it prepares for the IPO. The adjusted net worth will be high as the policyholder fund would be bifurcated into participating and non-participating funds, an official said.

       The proceeds from the IPO would help the government in meeting a chunk of its Rs 1.75 trillion divestment target for current fiscal.

       The ministerial panel that includes Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will give its final nod on the size of the IPO once it’s finalised by the DIPAM in consultation with intermediaries.

       (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)