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Informist, Monday, Mar. 16, 2026

 

--IDBI Bk: Not in position to confirm, deny report govt may scrap stake sale 

--IDBI Bank: No communication from govt on scrapping divestment process 

 

NEW DELHI – IDBI Bank Ltd. on Monday said it has not received any communication from the government regarding the scrapping of its disinvestment process, after its share prices fell 16% since the news broke out on Friday. "Bank has not received any communication from GOI (Government of India) with respect to scrapping of the said process of Strategic Disinvestment of the Bank, and, hence, we are not aware of any information leading to the referenced news report," the state-owned lender said in an exchange filing Monday.

 

Media widely reported Friday that the government's much-touted IDBI Bank privatisation plan had come to a halt as financial bids received were below the reserve price set for the transaction. The reserve price is the minimum price sought to carry out a transaction involving the sale of shares. This development technically meant that the government would have to redraw the privatisation plan for the bank and repeat the entire process. 

 

"...we undertake to forthwith issue further clarifications/details on receipt of any communication from GOI (Government of India) regarding the same," the bank said. At 1413 IST, shares of the bank were trading at INR 77.50 on the National Stock Exchange, down 16.0% from the previous close. IDBI Bank had reported a net profit of INR 19.35 billion for the December quarter and total income of INR 82.82 billion. 

 

Informist had reported on Mar. 9 that Canada's Fairfax Financial and the UAE's Emirates NDB had submitted bids to buy the government's 30.48% stake and the Life Insurance Corp. of India's 30.24% stake in IDBI Bank. Both the suitors have experience in acquiring banks in the Indian banking sector, with Emirates NDB recently acquiring RBL Bank Ltd. and Fairfax Financial already holding 40% stake in the old private sector lender CSB Bank. Earlier, Kotak Mahindra Bank was the preferred suitor to acquire the stake in IDBI Bank, but it had informed exchanges on Feb. 7 that it had not submitted a financial bid.

 

Currently, the government holds 45.48% stake in the bank, and LIC, the promoter, holds 49.24%. After the proposed strategic sale, the government's stake in the bank would have come down to 15% and LIC's to 19%. 

 

Informist had also reported that rising tensions in West Asia have led the finance ministry to re-prioritise its focus areas, pushing the IDBI Bank privatisation plan lower in the pecking order at the moment. The progress in undertaking the transaction was also impacted due to the current volatility in the stock market, as the government wanted to get the best value for its stake sale in the bank, the official had said. 

 

The government had sought initial bids from interested investors for IDBI Bank in October 2022. Bids received for the transaction coming below the reserve price, however, also meant that the government's privatisation bid would have been defeated yet again. If IDBI Bank was privatised, it would be only the second strategic disinvestment the government has succeeded in, after Air India. It would have also marked the government's first successful bank privatisation. 

 

At 1445 IST, shares of IDBI Bank traded 15.6% lower at INR 77.79 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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