Thought leadership: Not 1.0 or 2.0, this is LIC 3.0, asserts chairman MR Kumar

As the market is abuzz with the IPO of the year, the man of the hour is MR Kumar, the chairman of the country’s largest insurer LIC.

Mangalam Ramasubramanian Kumar, the name behind the behemoth of IPO chairs the Board of LIC since March 2019. His career in LIC however, started in 1983 as a Direct Recruit Officer. With almost four decades of career in LIC, he has worked across the geographical stretch of India from North to South and East to West, imbibing the diverse demographics. Throughout his career MR Kumar had the opportunity to work in different streams of life insurance management, providing a clarity of the process flow of the life insurance business.

Given the current scenario when most of the IPOs have been put on the backburner, LIC has decided to go ahead with its divestment plans. MR Kumar exuded that confidence on the back of his rich experience as the largest investment manager in the country.

“Buying LIC share in the upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO) will not just be buying into the equity of an insurance company, but would mean buying a pie of India’s equity market the way it is today,” said Kumar 

While the market perceives the post IPO as the new avatar of LIC- LIC 2.0, Kumar asserts it as 3.0. In his words, the nationalization of LIC wherein 245 companies merged was LIC 1.0. Entry of private players amid which LIC continue to hold substantial market share was LIC 2.0 and now with IPO and its listing on the bourses will be LIC 3.0.

With LIC 3.0, LIC would rethink their investment strategy, which may entail more churning for ULIPs while continuing the long-term stance for most other products. He intends to keep the machinery nimble and agile to the extent possible given the size of the corporation.

LIC IPO which opens tomorrow is sized at Rs 21,000 crore with a price band of Rs 902-949 while offering a discount of Rs 60 for LIC policyholders and Rs 45 apiece for retail investors and LIC employees.

Policyholders being the ones contributing to the capital of the biggest insurer in India ( valued at Rs 5.4 lakh crore), the discount offered to them is LIC’s way of giving back to them, states Kumar.