The President of India, acting through the Ministry of Finance, sold a 6.5% stake in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) by way of an offer for sale through the stock exchange mechanism, raising ₹31,552 crore (approximately US$3.3 billion) — making it India’s largest-ever offer for sale. The LIC OFS stake sale drew a multi-firm legal advisory team spanning domestic and international counsel. Dentons Link Legal, Trilegal, Sidley Austin, and FBT Gibbons all played advisory roles on this landmark transaction.
Introduction
Dentons Link Legal advised the Indian government on its 6.5% offer for sale of life insurer LIC for $3.3 billion. Trilegal represented the brokers Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Motilal Oswal, and IIFL Capital. Trilegal advised the broker syndicate on India law, while Sidley Austin acted as their international legal counsel.
LIC listed in May 2022 in one of India’s biggest initial public offerings, with the government selling a 3.5% stake; the latest offer for sale marks the government’s first divestment in the insurer since that listing and reduces the government’s stake in LIC from 96.5% to 90%. The transaction was executed through the stock exchange mechanism and structured as a pure offer for sale, with no fresh issuance of shares.
Deal Value
The Government of India raised ₹31,552 crore (approximately US$3.3 billion) through the sale of a 6.5% stake in LIC, making the transaction India’s largest-ever offer for sale. The offer consisted of a base size of a 2.5% stake with an option to sell an additional 4%, priced at a floor of ₹382 per share.
Legal Teams Involved
For a full picture of recent deal mandates across Indian law firms, see the Deal Meter.
Dentons Link Legal — Advised the President of India (Government)
Dentons Link Legal advised the President of India (Government) on this Offer for Sale. The transaction team consisted of Milind Jha (Partner), Aditya Bhardwaj (Partner), and Shailender Sharma (Partner). The team also included the following members as stated in the raw deal content:
- Kunal Mehta — Principal Associate
- Tanvi Shinde — Associate
- Kumar Aditya — Associate
Trilegal — Advised the Broker Syndicate (Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Motilal Oswal, IIFL Capital)
Trilegal represented the broker syndicate comprising Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, Motilal Oswal, and IIFL Capital. The Trilegal team comprised Richa Choudhary (Partner), Maitreya Rajurkar (Partner), Sanya Chaudhari (Senior Associate), and Naman Shah (Associate).
Sidley Austin and FBT Gibbons — Additional Advisors
Sidley Austin and FBT Gibbons also advised on this transaction. Further details on the specific scope of their mandates were not disclosed.
Significance and Impact
This monetisation exercise enabled the Government of India to achieve approximately two-thirds of its budget estimate for miscellaneous receipts for Fiscal 2027. That alone marks a significant fiscal milestone within a single transaction.
The stake sale increased public shareholding in LIC, India’s largest insurer, from 3.5% to 10.0%, enabling the Government of India to meet the applicable minimum public shareholding milestone ahead of the prescribed deadline. Compliance with SEBI’s minimum public shareholding norms had been a regulatory imperative for LIC since its 2022 listing.
The transaction received strong investor demand, with the offer being oversubscribed. The sale comes as India pushes ahead with its divestment programme, having set a divestment and asset monetisation target of 800 billion rupees for Fiscal 2027. The involvement of both domestic firms (Dentons Link Legal and Trilegal) and international counsel (Sidley Austin and FBT Gibbons) reflects the cross-border complexity and institutional investor demand that characterised this offering.
The LIC OFS stake sale stands as a watershed moment in India’s disinvestment history — the largest offer for sale ever executed on an Indian stock exchange. Trilegal lead partner Richa Choudhary described the transaction as “particularly notable as India’s largest-ever offer for sale,” undertaken with the dual objectives of monetising the government’s stake in LIC and increasing public shareholding to meet minimum public shareholding requirements. With four law firms across domestic and international jurisdictions advising on the deal, the transaction sets a new benchmark for legal advisory complexity in Indian capital markets disinvestments.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is based on the details provided and publicly available sources.
