Value of LIC investment in ONGC slips by Rs 900 cr in 2 days

New Delhi, Mar 4 (PTI) : State-owned insurance giant LIC, which saved the much-hyped ONGC share auction, has lost around Rs 900 crore in market value of the acquired stake in the oil major in just two trading sessions after the Offer for Sale (OFS) on Thursday. LIC, according to official sources, picked up 40 crore shares, or 95 per cent of the state-owned ONGC shares on offer, sold through the auction route and witnessed substantial erosion in value of its investments thereafter. Taking into account the average price of Rs 303.67 per share, the acquisition of 40 crore shares of ONGC, or about 4.6 per cent stake, through the auction route would have cost the LIC about Rs 12,146.80 crore. The value of investment at Saturday's closing price works out to be Rs 11,234 crore, reflecting a notional loss of about Rs 912 crore to the insurance major in just two days. Shares of ONGC closed at Rs 280.85 a piece, down 0.21 per cent on the BSE on Saturday. The government had earlier said it received an average price of Rs 303.67 for a share of ONGC, 4.71 per cent higher than the floor price of Rs 290. "The volume weighted average price (of ONGC shares) was Rs 303.67 per share against floor price of Rs 290," the Finance Ministry had said a in statement. The stake sale yielded the government Rs 12,767 crore. As of October-December quarter of 2011-12, Life Insurance Corporation of India had stake of 3.23 per cent in the ONGC. With the fresh equity, total holding of the insurer has gone up to about 8 per cent.  It will still be less than the 10 per cent investment cap fixed by insurance regulator IRDA. The first-ever auction of a state-owned blue chip got a very lukewarm response from the foreign financial institutions and domestic banks on March 1, and the issue would have flopped but for the LIC which picked up 95 per cent of equity on the block. So far this fiscal, the government has been able to raise about Rs 14,000 crore through disinvestment in public sector undertakings (PSUs), against the budgeted Rs 40,000 crore.While Rs 1,145 crore was raised through an follow-on public offer (FPO) of PFC, Rs 12,767 crore came from 5 per cent stake auction in ONGC. The six merchant bankers to the issue were JM Financial Services, Citigroup Global Markets India, DSP Merrill Lynch, HSBC Securities, Morgan Stanley India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India). The auction received a total of 3,982 bids for over 54 crore shares. However, 1,219 bids for about 12 crore were cancelled due to various reasons, including insufficient funds. In all, there were 2,763 valid bids for 42.04 crore ONGC shares. The government had planned to sell 44.77 crore shares.