LIC to invest Rs 17,000 cr in market this quarter

LIFE Insurance Corporation (LIC), India’s largest institutional investor, will invest Rs 17,000 crore in the equity market during the January-March 2009 period, LIC managing director Thomas Mathew T told. The life insurance major is targeting investments worth Rs 40,000 crore into equities in the current financial year. “We are a long-term investor and will be active in the equity market, staying well within the investment guidelines prescribed by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). We will optimise investor returns. We have also seen a huge growth in demand for corporate loans, and accordingly, our corporate loan disbursements have doubled,” he added. During the April-December 2009 period, LIC had disbursed over Rs 30,000 crore as corporate loans and the corporation expects the momentum to continue during the current quarter, a top LIC executive said. With banks adopting a conservative approach on corporate lending, despite several attempts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ease liquidity situation, many corporates have chosen to seek funding from LIC to meet their fund requirements. Tata Group and Reliance Industries, for instance, are in the process of raising funds from LIC through the non-convertible debenture (NCD) route. LIC’s investment portfolio is worth around Rs 8,06,000 crore. As per IRDA guidelines, the institution has to invest 50% of the investible funds in government securities, 15% in infrastructure while the balance 35% can be invested in equities, corporate loans, mutual funds, fixed deposits and commercial papers. The corporation, during the current financial year, has infused around 15,000 crore into mutual funds, which is around a three-fold increase in its investment in the segment over the previous year. This, according to the public sector insurer, has come in as a huge respite for the cash-strapped mutual fund house that was reeling under redemption pressure, as the global financial crisis caused local stock market to crash.