LGEINDIA

Updates stock price in paragraph 2, adds details throughout

By Vivek Kumar M

Oct 17 (Reuters) - India's Canara HSBC Life Insurance CANR.NS made a muted debut on the bourses on Friday, as unappealing pricing and a crowded IPO market clouded the insurer's prospects.

Its stock was trading at 108.9 rupees, as of 10:50 a.m. IST, up 2.7% from its issue and listing price of 106 rupees, yielding the insurer a valuation of 105.15 billion rupees ($1.20 billion).

Peers SBI Life Insurance SBIL.NS and HDFC Life Insurance HDFL.NS are valued around $21 billion and $18 billion, respectively.

Canara HSBC Life Insurance, which is a joint venture between Canara Bank and HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) Holdings, struggled to garner bids from retail and non-institutional investors earlier this week.

Retail investors subscribed 42% of their quota, while high-net-worth individuals subscribed a third of their shares in the $283 million IPO.

Thanks to qualified institutional buyers, the issue was subscribed 2.29 times, which was still lower than most other IPOs that opened in the last couple of weeks.

For instance, another Canara Bank-promoted entity, Canara Robeco Asset Management CANE.NS, received bids worth nearly 10-fold and closed 13% higher in its debut on Thursday.

Choice Broking said the insurer's valuation appeared to be fully priced, with price-to-enterprise value multiple, a stock valuation metric, of 1.6x, while industry averaged 2.4x.

"High dependence on bancassurance (where banks sell insurance) and relatively lower VNB (value of new business) margins compared to peers is expected to keep valuation multiples at a discount to peers," ICICI Direct said.

The insurer got 87% of its new business premium in fiscal year 2024-25 through bancassurance, with Canara Bank contributing 70.6% of this.

The listing caps a busy week for the Indian IPO market, which saw five stock debuts, including a blockbuster listing from LG Electronics India LGEL.NS and a muted start from the country's largest IPO of the year, Tata Capital TATC.NS. ($1 = 87.8387 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Harikrishnan Nair)

(([email protected];))

Updates shares level, adds details, background from paragraph 2 onwards

Oct 16 (Reuters) - Indian asset manager Canara Robeco's CANE.NS shares jumped 13% in their trading debut on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday, valuing the company at around 60 billion rupees ($681.42 million).

The Mumbai-based firm's stock rose to 302 rupees, above the 266 rupee issue price.

The listing follows its nearly $150 million IPO that was subscribed about 10-fold earlier this week.

It is a busy week for India's primary market, as the country's largest IPO of the year Tata Capital TATC.NS, and LG Electronics India LGEL.NS also made their debut.

Canara Robeco's IPO was led by a strong demand from qualified institutional buyers, who subscribed 26-fold their reserved quota. In comparison, retail investors' portion was subscribed two-fold.

Brokerages PL Capital and InCred Equities are bullish on the asset manager's growth potential on the back of strong retail flows into mutual funds, a focus on active equity funds, and room for earnings growth.

PL Capital initiated coverage on the stock with a 'buy' rating and a price target of 320 rupees per share, an upside of 20.3% from the issue price.

Canara Robeco is the first public debut by an Indian asset manager this year, adding to the growing list of financial services firms tapping the capital markets. ICICI Prudential AMC IICL.NS is expected to later this year.

Canara Robeco, which is a joint venture between India's Canara Bank CNBK.NS and the European arm of Japan's ORIX 8591.T, is the smallest among its listed peers in terms of revenue, which include HDFC AMC HDFA.NS, Nippon Life India AMC NIPF.NS and UTI AMC UTIA.NS.

Unlike its peers, the over-30-year-old asset management company's portfolio is largely focused on equities, with a predominantly retail investor base.

($1 = 88.3175 Indian rupees)

($1 = 87.8310 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)

(([email protected];))

Add details from paragraph 3

By Vivek Kumar M and Yagnoseni Das

Oct 13 (Reuters) - Tata Capital TATC.NS, India's third-largest non-bank lender by revenue, was muted in its debut trade on Monday, valuing the firm at 1.4 trillion rupees ($15.78 billion), with investors seemingly not that keen on the first listing by the storied Tata Group in nearly two years.

Tata Capital's subdued debut has come in a busy IPO market, where analysts say investors appear to be favouring LG Electronics India's LGEL.NS $1.3-billion share sale as they expect stronger listing gains and near-term growth, helped by recent tax cuts.

As of 10:57 am, Tata Capital shares traded at 329.8 rupees, slightly higher than their offer price of 326 rupees. Its market capitalization at the current price trails Bajaj Finance BJFN.NS and Jio Financial Services >, which are valued at $72 billion and $22 billion, respectively.

Tata Capital's IPO was fairly priced but the lack of a major valuation discount to its listed peers was one of the key factors for the tepid response, said Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market analyst.

"This is probably the first time we have seen such muted demand for an IPO from Tata Group," Baliga said.

Strong interest in LG Electronics India's IPO and negative news surrounding the Tata Group, including boardroom turmoil, also weighed on demand for Tata Capital's share sale, said Dhiraj Relli, CEO at HDFC Securities.

Last week, while Tata Capital got bids worth $2.9 billion for its IPO, LG Electronics India's public issue, which opened a day later, received nearly $50 billion worth of bids.

LG will start trading on October 14, while WeWork India, which made its debut last week, fell as much as 5.2% as investors stayed wary of its steep valuation and governance risks.

The last IPO from the salt-to-software Tata Group was by engineering and technology services provider Tata Technologies TATE.NS in November 2023, which listed at a premium of 140% to its issue price.

($1 = 88.7420 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das and Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected];))