Reliance Nippon: LIC hires Reliance-Nippon’s Sunil Agarwal as CFO ahead of IPO

Life Insurance Corp. Of India is understood to have hired former Reliance -Nippon Life Insurance executive Sunil Agarwal as the new chief financial officer of the company ahead of its planned public issue.

Agarwal, who resigned from Reliance as CFO and had spent nearly two decades as finance executive in life insurance firms, has joined LIC this month, sources said.

In September, the State -run insurer has called for applications for the post of CFO and was in search for an appropriate person.

Agarwal, a chartered accountant and a long-standing finance executive who worked with two major life insurance companies in the past, will take the charge in the newly created post at the insurer.

LIC did not have a chief financial officer and the position of Executive director F&A has been changed to CFO as the insurer is expected to launch India’s largest ever public issue.

Shubhangi Sanjay Soman was the executive director in charge of finance and accounting (F&A) at LIC, prior to Agarwal’s appointment.

When contacted, LIC declined to comment. “Due to the Corporation in IPO mode and accordingly no details / comment could be shared at this moment,” LIC said in an emailed response.

Agarwal was not immediately available for comments.

The CFO appointment is on contractual basis, sources said.

In September, LIC called for applications for the post of CFO. It took more than six months for them to finalise the post.

Earlier last month, LIC filed prospectus for its public offer, in which the government is expected to dilute as much as 5 percent through an offer-for-sale.

LIC IPO is crucial for New Delhi that will aim to borrow a record Rs 14.95 lakh crore (gross) in 2022-23. With the country shrugging off pandemic debris fast, any unwarranted higher capital market borrowing can upset India’s growth trajectory.

“When the world is going through turbulence we cannot take the risk of jumping the gun. Instead, we are trying to tighten LIC’s governance standard so that whenever you go onboard, it becomes a super hit,” said a senior executive involved in the LIC IPO process.

In between investment bankers are extending their roadshows to reach out each and every potential investor, market sources said.

Last year, LIC hired 10 investment banks including Axis Securities, Bank of America Securities, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, ICICI Securities, JM Financial, JP Morgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Nomura, and SBI Capital markets as bankers to the mega-IPO.