NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry on Thursday extended the deadline for queries submission by bidders for IDBI stake sale till November 10. It had on October 7, floated the preliminary information memorandum (PIM) to invite bids for 61% stake sale in the bank. Earlier, the deadline for submission of queries was October 7. The bids have to be submitted by the interested parties by December 16.
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on Thursday released a corrigendum to the PIM and extended the deadline for submission of queries till November 10. The government is likely to get the financial bids for IDBI Bank by March. The privatisation process is likely to complete in the first half of next financial year beginning April 2023.
Besides this, the buyer will have to make an open offer to the minority shareholders of IDBI Bank for buying 5.28% stake. In addition, interested bidders will have to qualify the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ‘Fit & Proper’ assessment and get security clearance from the government or home ministry at the stage of expression of interest (EoI).
The government and LIC collectively hold 94.72% stake in the bank. While LIC has 49.24% stake, the government holds 45.48% of the shares and public shareholders hold 5.2% stake. Post stake sale, LIC and the government’s shareholding would come down to 34%. Based on Thursday’s share price of IDBI Bank (`45), the government and LIC would together fetch over Rs 26,000 crore from the stake sale.