Govt evaluating financial bids for IDBI Bank strategic sale: Sources

The government is evaluating revised financial bids from Fairfax Financial Holdings and Emirates NBD for a 60.72 per cent stake in IDBI Bank. The strategic sale resumed in July after earlier bids fell below the reserve price set by the government

New Delhi: The government is evaluating the financial bids for strategic stake sale in IDBI Bank and the process is moving at a steady pace, government sources said on Friday.

In July, billionaire investor Prem Watsa-backed Fairfax Financial Holdings and Dubai-based Emirates NBD had put in their revised bids to buy 60.72 per cent in IDBI Bank, sources had earlier said.

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The strategic disinvestment of IDBI Bank is moving at a steady pace. The government is evaluating the financial bids submitted by the interested investors, the sources said, without disclosing any further details.

Both the bidders have experience in the Indian banking sector, with Dubai-based Emirates NDB acquiring majority stake in RBL Bank earlier this year and Fairfax Financial holding a 40 per cent stake in the private-sector CSB Bank.

The bidders already have security clearance from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and ‘Fit and Proper’ assessment from the Reserve Bank of India.

This is the second time that the interested bidders have put in financial bids for buying stake in IDBI Bank, in which the government and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) are together looking to sell 60.72 per cent.

An Expression of Interest (EoI) for the strategic sale was floated in October 2022, and after regulatory clearances and due diligence, financial bids came in on February 6, 2026. However, the bids by Fairfax Financial Holdings and Emirates NBD came in below the reserve price decided by the Inter-ministerial group on disinvestment headed by secretaries in the finance ministry. The government then put the strategic sale process on hold.

The strategic sale process restarted this financial year and the government invited revised financial bids from the two suitors early in July. The revised financial bids came in on July 13, 2026.

Currently, the government and state-owned LIC together hold 94.71 per cent stake in IDBI Bank. The government owns 45.48 per cent, while LIC holds 49.24 per cent in the lender.

Of this, the government and LIC are looking to sell 60.72 per cent — the Centre’s 30.48 and LIC’s 30.24 per cent stake, respectively.