At least five domestic mutual funds, SBI, Aditya Birla, , HDFC and , have made commitments in the range of Rs 150-1,000 crore each for Life Insurance Corp of India’s initial public offering. While the insurer estimates up to 70 lakh retail applications that is more than five times the average retail applications received for Indian primary equity market issuances in last financial year, people familiar with the matter told ET.

Singapore’s GIC, and Norges Bank, the Norway central bank and

too likely agreed to participate in the share sale. “All those investors may come both on anchor and main books,” said one of the persons cited above. The estimated retail applications reflect exuberance among individuals to own shares of the insurance behemoth when it opens for subscription Wednesday.

This means, retail bids, including from wealthy individuals, will be at least double the actual size pegged in the range of Rs 8,603-9,068 going by the price band. “Half of the retail subscriptions are expected to come from Western India including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan,” said an executive. Investment bankers have conducted roadshows across the country including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad led by local investment bankers including ICICI Securities, JM Financial and Kotak.

Roadshows to woo individuals will conclude on Monday. SBI Capital Markets, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan are among others helping garner institutional investors. In the last financial year, 52 firms raised a record of Rs 1.11 lakh crore through IPOs and the average retail subscription stood at Rs 14.07 lakh, according to Prime Data base. Retail applications stood at 12.73 lakh in FY21 and 6.88 lakh in FY20, the data showed. Offshore investors did not respond to ET’s request for comment. LIC of India and BNP declined to comment. Individual funds could not be contacted immediately for comments.

Total size of the retail allocation is pegged around Rs 9,000 crore. The price band of the issue is in the range of Rs 902-949 per share. Within the band, wealthy individuals will have a subscription for Rs 2,674-2,814 crore. Retail individuals can go for Rs 5,929-6,254 crore worth of shares.

Earlier, the government decided to reduce the valuation of LIC of India while downsizing the share sale. “Investors drew confidence after such reduction, as they are keen to bet,” said head of a mutual fund house. An individual can apply for shares up to Rs 2 lakh. The minimum benchmark is set at Rs 25,000 crore.