PSU IDBI Bank’s chief says England’s CDC, Spore’s GIC interested in stake

Public sector lender IDBI Bank on Tuesday said international institutions like CDC of England and GIC of Singapore have shown some interest in buying stake in the bank.

There were media reports that the government was in talks with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group member, to sell up to 15 per cent up stake in the struggling 

infra-lender- turned commercial bank.

"You are talking about IFC, but there are many others — CDC is there, GIC is there — these investors are looking at buying stake, because they know IDBI is a very credible bank," managing director and chief executive Kishor Kharat told reporters here. The government owns around 80 per cent stake in IDBI Bank and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Budget on Monday had said that the Government is open to paring its stake in IDBI Bank below 50 per cent through a strategic stake sale. 

"The process of transformation of IDBI Bank has already started. The government will take it forward and also consider the option of reducing its stake to below 50 per cent," Jaitley had said. 

The bank on Tuesday announced a three-year plan to revamp it by doubling its business to Rs 10 trillion by FY19 and also to reduce its gross non-performing assets to below 3 per cent, which is close to 9 per cent now. 

In the December quarter, the bank had reported its worst numbers with a net loss of Rs 2,183 crore on a massive rise in NPAs, making it the second largest loss in the history of the nation's banking history after BoB's over Rs 3,342 crore in the same period.