LIC says public sector bank mergers will not hurt its equity stake in individual banks

Chennai:

Life Insurance Corporation on Friday said the merger of public sector banks won't impact the shares it holds in the individual public sector banks.

“LIC holds 12-15 per cent equity in all public sectors banks and we will continue to do so in case of merger of the banks. It will not impact us,” said R Thamodharan, zonal manager of Life Insurance Corporation.

His statement comes in the wake of a decision to set up a ministerial panel led by finance minister Arun Jaitley to consider and oversee mergers among the country’s 21 public sector banks.

Thamodaran said that LIC has provided Rs 6.55 lakh crore as loan to state governments for their infrastructure projects. However, he said that he does not have state-specific figures about the loan being provided to various states.

He said that LIC has provided Rs 8.22 lakh crore as loan for Central government projects. He said that LIC has shares in all the top 500 companies

In 2016-17, LIC has registered a growth of 27.22pc I the new business in terms of first year premium, which stands at 1.24 lakh crore by March 31, 2017 capturing 71.07pc of market share.