Going public in India Life Insurance Corporation, whose 3.5% stake the country’s government intends to sell for about $2.74 billion, promises to be the largest IPO in the country’s history and an indicator of foreign investors’ interest in India, writes CNBC.

LIC manages about two-thirds of the life insurance market in India. The initial public offering by subscription will take place this Wednesday. The corporation will offer about 22.13 million shares at a price of 902 to 949 Indian rupees, or $11.78 to $12.39 per share at Tuesday’s exchange rate.

LIC’s services are second only to bank deposits as a savings investment in India. Plus, the company is trusted by millions of people and has a huge reach across the country.

Between 2019 and 2021, LIC’s share of household financial savings rose 3.4 percentage points to 19.4%, higher than pension funds’ 16.7% share, while bank deposits fell 7.1 percentage points to 29.4% over the same period.

LIC was a monopoly in the Indian insurance market until 2000 and is still the dominant player, controlling about two-thirds of the life insurance market. LIC has a market share of 64.14% in 2021, up from 66.22% in the previous year.

As about $16 billion of foreign capital has left the Indian market since February this year, both the timing of the IPO has been postponed to May and the offer size itself has changed: it was originally pegged at 5%, but has been reduced to 3.5%.

The company’s current implied valuation of $80 billion is about half of its February valuation, at least in part because of market conditions. The company had previously planned to offer a 5% stake for about $8 billion.

Of the shares offered to the market, 20% are open to foreign investors and 10% are for policyholders.

LIC has 250 million policyholders and as of March 2021, LIC’s asset base exceeded $520 billion, with $503 billion in investments and $470.70 billion in life assets.

As a demonstration of its commitment to reforms in the financial sector, the Indian government last year increased the share of foreign capital in insurance from 49% to 74%.