Premature to talk on IDBI Bank, other deals, says Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Ashok Vaswani

Ashok Vaswani-Kotak Mahindra Bank

Kotak Mahindra Bank’s managing director and chief executive officer Ashok Vaswani on October 25 said that it is a little premature to talk about the IDBI Bank deal and other deals happening in the market.

“We cannot and should not be commenting upon any items which could or could not be in process. So maybe a little premature to talk about what's happening on any, not only on IDBI Bank, or on any of the deals that we could be looking at this point in time,” Vaswani said during the post earning media call.

On September 8, Moneycontrol had reported that Dubai's government-owned Emirates NBD, Prem Watsa's Fairfax India Holdings, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Oaktree Capital Management have shown interest in IDBI Bank.

Moneycontrol had reported in January this year that KPMG, the consultant to the divestment process, is conducting a closing due diligence on IDBI Bank. This process concluded around April this year and a report was shared with all the four candidates who cleared the RBI’s fit and proper test. Subsequently, some of the bidders too have conducted their final rounds of due diligence.

In an interview to Network18 on September 5, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had indicated that divestment of IDBI Bank is on-track and is expected to conclude by March 2026.

The divestment of IDBI Bank was announced in February 2021. However, the process was formally kick started on October 7, 2022, when DIPAM invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) for strategic divestment of IDBI Bank. In January 2023, DIPAM announced that it received ‘multiple expressions of interest’ for the bank. Subsequently, names of four shortlisted potential investors who cleared the RBI’s fit and proper assessment surfaced around September last year, post which access to the Data room for buyer due diligence was opened.

Classified as promoters, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the Government of India are set to sell a total of 60.7 percent stake through the divestment process.