India: Cabinet approves strategic disinvestment in IDBI Bank
Photograph: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg via Getty Images
May 5, 2021
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday cleared the proposal for strategic disinvestment along with transfer management control of IDBI Bank.
The government and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) together own more than 94% stake in IDBI Bank with 45.48% and 49.24% individual stakes respectively. LIC is currently the promoter of IDBI Bank with management control after government sold its majority stake in the bank to the life insurance major in 2019.
However, government and LIC may not fully divest their stake in IDBI Bank and both may keep minority stake in the bank post the strategic disinvestment. “The extent of respective shareholding to be divested by GoI and LIC shall be decided at the time of structuring of transaction in consultation with RBI,” the Cabinet secretariat said in a statement.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
April 29, 2021
The government’s ambitious disinvestment schedule for FY22 may get delayed by a few months because of the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic, disinvestment secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey indicated on Wednesday. Pandey, however, exuded confidence that the ₹1.75 trillion target is still achievable.
“Any divestment would mean that there are bidders on the other side and we have to listen to them as well. To some extent, the timing will be conditioned by the way they respond. In the last month or so, the pandemic has really come like a storm. We have to wait and see if the storm passes,” Pandey, who is in charge of the department of investment and public asset management (Dipam) and department of civil aviation, said at the third edition of the three-day Mint India Investment Summit 2021, which began on Wednesday.