IDBI Bank shares in focus as disinvestment by March 2024 unlikely

Shares if IDBI Bank will be in focus on Friday morning after a senior government official said that proposed stake sale could not be completed by March 2024. Tuhin Kanta Pandey at secretary at Department of Investment and Public Asset Monetisation (DIPAM) at the sidelines of a FICCI event, suggested that the transaction is on course but there were aspects like the RBI’s fit and proper criteria that needed to be complied with.

Pandey, as per a PTI report, suggested that he does not think that before March, the IDBI Bank stake sale could be practically concluded.  Pandey was answering a question on whether the department would be able to achieve the divestment target of raising Rs 51,000 crore in the ongoing financial year.

Shares of IDBI Bank have fallen 6.4 per cent in the last one month but are up 19 per cent year-to-date.

At present, the government held 45 per cent stake in IDBI Bank. LIC, on the other hand, owned 49.24 per cent stake in the bank. The two have jointly decided to sell 60.7 per cent stake in the lender.

Pandey said that the central bank was still conducting the vetting process. The government had earlier expected the divestment process to be completed by October-end, raising stock market hopes that the sale could close by the end of March, Reuters reported.

Pandey told PTI said that the achievement of divestment target is contingent upon important transactions such as the one involving sale of majority ownership in IDBI Bank going through.

IDBI Bank is a full service universal bank, which offers a wide array of banking products and services. It is also engaged in capital market, investment banking and mutual fund businesses.

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