India is seeking to raise 300 billion rupees ($3.9 billion) through an initial public offering of state-owned life insurance companies, according to people familiar with the matter, about 40 per cent below previous estimates as the Ukraine war dented valuations.

Officials hope to complete the listing within the next two weeks, which will remain the largest in India, said the people who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are not public. LIC could be worth around 6 trillion rupees, the people said.

As recently as April, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was looking to raise 500 billion rupees by selling as much as 7 per cent of LIC, according to Bloomberg. The stake sale could now be just over 5 per cent due to weak investor demand, the people said. Current approvals, including a draft prospectus, will expire on May 12.

Representatives for LIC and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. The Business Standard reported the revised stake sale plan earlier on Friday. The IPO would remain the country’s largest-ever IPO, surpassing that of Paytm operator One 97 Communications Ltd., which raised about 183 billion rupees in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Indian companies have raised about $1.1 billion in IPOs this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s less than half of the nearly $3 billion raised during the same period in 2021.