FinMin extends query submission deadline for IDBI Bank stake sale till Nov 10

The finance ministry had floated the Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) inviting bids for IDBI Bank stake sale on 7 October.

The Central government and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) said that they will together divest 60.72 per cent stake in IDBI Bank.

The deadline for raising queries and submission of bids by interested bidder was October 28 and December 16, respectively.

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on Thursday issued a corrigendum to the PIM and extended the deadline for submission of queries till November 10.

The Centre is expecting to get the financial bids for IDBI Bank by March and complete the process of privatisation in the first half of next fiscal beginning April 2023.

The Centre will divest 30.48 per cent stake and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will offload 30.24 per cent in IDBI Bank. After the stake sale, the government’s and LIC’s stake jointly will come down to 34 per cent, from currently 94.72 per cent.

LIC and the government currently holds 49.24 per cent and 45.48 per cent stake respectively in IDBI Bank. The remaining 5.28 per cent stake is with public.

In addition, the buyer will also have to make an open offer to the minority shareholders of IDBI Bank for buying 5.28 per cent stake.

Interested bidders would have to clear RBI’s ‘Fit & Proper’ assessment and get security clearance from the government/home ministry in the EoI stage itself to be able to access IDBI Bank’s data room for due diligence.

T ofhe scrip IDBI Bank closed at ₹45.20, up 0.33 per cent, on the BSE. At the current market price, 60.72 per cent stake would fetch about ₹29,500 crore to the exchequer.