After a muted listing, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Monday had more disappointment for its shareholders when it declared a modest dividend of Rs 1.50 per share even as standalone net profits for the fourth quarter ended March dropped 18 per cent to Rs 2,371.55 crore from Rs 2,893.49 crore a year ago.

This was the first quarterly results announcement after its listing. The corporation continues to trade at a discount to its issue price of Rs 949 per share.

During Monday’s trading, the stock closed at Rs 837.05 — a discount of nearly 12 per cent to the IPO price. After the poor listing, the corporation’s dividend payout was keenly watched and there was optimism that it would compensate for the weak performance in the secondary markets through a good dividend.

LIC did not declare any dividend for 2021. For 2019-20, it had paid the government Rs 2,611 crore.

The dividend announcement for FY2022 sparked a flurry of sarcastic posts on social media. “Good news for IPO holders. LIC has declared a whopping dividend of 150 paise/share,” tweeted Rajeev Gupta, a trader.

A large part of the payout in value terms will go to the government which holds a 96.50 per cent stake in LIC. For the Centre, it comes after the sharply lower surplus transfer from the RBI.

On a standalone basis, the corporation’s net premium income rose to Rs 1,43,745.92 crore from Rs 1,21,626.06 crore a year ago. Of this, the first year premium was at Rs 14,61.4.25 crore (Rs 10,95.7.64 crore).

The 13month persistency ratio which gauges the renewal premium from policyholders was at 69.24 per cent for the quarter as compared to 73.94 per cent in the year ago period.

Last year, the corporation had approved bifurcation of its unified policy holder fund into participating policyholders' fund and non-participating policyholders' fund. Earlier it transferred 95 per cent of the valution surplus as dividend to participating policyholders while 5 per cent was transferred to shareholders.

As per the new structure, 100 per cent of the surplus generated from the non-par business will be available for distribution to all shareholders. For the participating policyholders fund the ratio has been set at 90:10 with 10 per cent going to shareholders.

On a consolidated basis, LIC’s net profit was down 17 per cent at trs 2409 crore in the fourth quarter against Rs 2917 crore in the same period of the previous year.