The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is the largest life insurance company in India with a market share of 64%. This company has been providing insurance for more than 65 years and now it is all ready to launch India’s biggest-ever IPO.
Let’s take a look at LIC’s history and its growth over the years.
The birth of LIC
LIC’s journey began in 1956 when the Indian life insurance industry was nationalised. At that time, there were 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 non-Indian companies and 75 provident funds that operated in this space.
In a bid to nationalise the life insurance space and create LIC, the Indian parliament passed the Life Insurance Corporation of India Act. Following this, around 245 companies were merged to establish LIC. Initially, the government decided to infuse ₹5 crore into the life insurance player.
And guess what, from 1956 to 2000, LIC was the only life insurance company in the country.
LIC faces competition
This is the climax of the story.
In 2000, the wave of liberalisation also swept through India’s life insurance sector. The Indian government opened the life insurance sector and private players were ready to jump in. With the Indian life insurance sector being highly underpenetrated, private players made a beeline to enter this space.
This translated into fierce competition for LIC. By 2009, there were eight private players in India’s life insurance sector. To combat this competition, LIC launched new products, improved its services and increased expenditure on advertising.
Over the years, the number of players in the life insurance space has increased to 23 but LIC continues to hold a dominant position.
LIC continues to grow
From 212 branch offices in 1956 to the 2,048 branch offices now, LIC has expanded its footprints across India. After crossing the milestone of 1 crore policies in 2015, today LIC holds a 74.6% market share in terms of the number of individual policies issued.
The government-owned company offers products in two categories – group and individual – consisting of products like term insurance, health insurance, annuity and pension, group term insurance, group savings insurance and more.
For date, price and timeline details on the LIC IPO, click here: https://upstox.com/ipo-initial-public-offering/lic-life-insurance-corporation-of-india/42cb1060d6504ae9930f8c595b35a019
For company information, news, updates and application process related to the LIC IPO, click here: https://licipo.upstox.com/
To start investing open a Upstox Demat and Trading account: https://upstox.com/open-demat-account/
To know more about Upstox visit our website: https://upstox.com/
Desktop: https://upstox.com/upstox-pro-web/