State-owned insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) purchased nearly half the shares sold by the Hindustan Copper Ltd to offload 5.58 per cent stake.

As per stats revealed by stock exchanges, LIC purchased 2.25 crore shares from the total 5.16 crore shares offered by HCL during its disinvestment. LIC now owns 2.83 per cent stake in HCL, which has a total public float of 5.99 per cent.

Following the disinvestment, the number of public investors in the state-owned copper miner jumped to 26 from the original 7.

By December last year, a total of 7 insurers had an exposure of 2.71 lakh crore shares with a holding of 2.27 per cent in HCL, as against a single insurer that owned just 28 lakh shares (0.03 per cent stake) in September last year.

The copper miner's public offer also attracted mutual funds (MFs), financial institutions, banks and high networth individuals; but it failed to attract an encouraging response from foreign investors. The offer attracted just two foreign investors.

As on December 31, 2012, financial institutions and banks own 0.87 per cent stake in HCL, while MFs hold 0.34 per cent stake.

With the disclosure of stock exchanges' data about the HCL public offer, it has become clear that LIC was the main force behind the success of HCL offer.