Govt receives fin bids for IDBI’s strategic selloff

NEW DELHI: Govt has received financial bids for the strategic disinvestment of IDBI Bank, signalling progress in the stake sale process of the lender.

“They will be evaluated as per the prescribed procedure,” secretary, department of investment and public asset management (Dipam), said on microblogging site X while announcing that bids have been received. He did not give details. Indian-Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax is learnt to be among the bidders.

The strategy involves selling a combined 60.7% stake of govt and LIC and is expected to fetch about Rs 33,000 crore, with a winner likely to be announced by March-end 2026.

The transaction would mark the country’s first privatisation of a former state-owned bank through a two-step route which involved state insurer Life Insurance Corporation-led rescue that resulted in its reclassification as a private sector bank.

This was followed by the start of a strategic sale process, which unlike direct auctions such as the one involving Air India, would transfer full management control to a private owner, setting a precedent for hybrid exits in banking reform.

IDBI Bank’s privatisation traces back to its 2019 rescue by LIC, which injected Rs 21,000 crore for nearly 49.2% stake to stabilise the lender amid mounting bad loans or non performing assets (NPAs), shifting control from govt to the state-owned insurer. Formal divestment was announced in Budget 2020, followed by expressions of interest in 2022 and RBI’s “fit and proper” clearances by 2024 for bidders which included Kotak Mahindra Bank, Emirates NBD and Fairfax India.