Moneycontrol NewsIndia's largest life insurer -- Life Insurance Corporation -- will announce its quarterly numbers Monday. But, in what would be the first time in its six decades of existence, the company’s Chairman will also hold a press conference to discuss the results, reports the Business Standard today.
With nearly 72.61 percent market share of the life insurance industry and an investment corpus bigger than the entire mutual fund industry put together, the insurance giant has taken the initiative to address the media as part of its strategy to make its presence and importance known to India Inc. and the stock market.
LIC holds sizeable stakes of over 10 percent in 49 companies including index heavyweights like L&T (15.7 percent), Bharat Heavy Engineering & ITC (14.3 percent each), Tata Steel (13.6 percent), Hindalco (11.4 percent), and M&M (10.3 percent). Among other investments, it has over 10 percent stake in banking majors Corporation Bank (18.9 percent), Axis Bank (13.9 percent), Punjab National Bank (12.5 percent), and ICICI Bank (10.9 percent).
In March 2016, it had an investment corpus of roughly Rs 22.1 lakh crore, much higher than the industry’s total of Rs 17 lakh crore. Investments of 23 other insurers totalled Rs 18 lkah crore as the end of FY16.
Market experts consider the move to formally announce results as a much-needed step in improving the transparency, particularly considering the size of its investments in the industry behemoths. Despite its huge investments across the industry with a say in most boardroom decisions with the high equity stake, the insurance major would, so far, discreetly post its annual report on its website without much hype.
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