The initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will remain open to investors on Sunday, May 8. Given the enormous interest from subscribers, the authorities have made an exception for India’s largest IPO to date. Also on Saturday, May 7, investors made their bids for the IPO of LIC. Bidding on IPOs is usually not available during the weekend.
SBI branches will remain open on Sunday for LIC IPO
The State Bank of India (SBI) previously said all of its branches will remain open on Sunday, May 8, to process LIC IPO applications. “We are pleased to announce that, for the convenience of our customers applying for a LIC IPO, all of our branches will be open to accept the application on May 8, 2022 (Sunday),” SBI wrote on their official Twitter account.
RBI asks ASBA-designated bank branches to open May 8
The Reserve Bank of India has also ordered that all Application Supported by Blocked Account (ASBA) designated bank branches must remain open on Sundays. “The Government of India, in order to facilitate the bidding for LIC IPO, has requested that all bank branches designated to process Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) applications be allowed to open to the public on May 8, 2022 (Sunday). held. The matter has been investigated and it has been decided that banks may keep all of their ASBA-designated branches open on May 8, 2022 (Sunday) for the above purpose,” the RBI said in a circular.
LIC IPO Booking: What is ASBA? How does it work?
ASBA is the mechanism by which investors apply for shares in a public offering through their bank account. Simply put, ASBA is an application that contains an authorization from investors to block the application money in the bank account for subscribing to an issue. It is mandatory for the investors to apply for public and rights issues through ASBA. It should be noted that if a subscriber applies through ASBA, his or her application fee will be debited from the bank account only if his or her application is selected for allocation after the basis of allocation is completed. “Technically, one can apply for an IPO any day until the window is open through ASBA, processing will be the next business day,” said Narendra Solanki, head of equity research (fundamental), Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers.
LIC IPO: Bank unions object to banks working on Sundays
All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) has objected to RBI’s decision to open ASBA-designated branches on Sunday to facilitate tendering for Life Insurance Corporation’s public offer. “Given the widespread use of online IPO among investors, we believe that most affiliates will not receive even a single application in physical format on Sunday. In such circumstances, the decision to keep all bank branches open is per se a farce and banks cannot afford to bear such gargantuan expenses,” AIBOC said in a statement. more than ₹100 crore due to employee benefits and other operational costs to keep the branches open on a public holiday, it said.
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