England's CDC, Singapore GIC interested in buying stake: IDBI chief

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% 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% stake in IDBI Bank and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Budget on Monday had said the government was open to paring its stake in IDBI Bank below 50% 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%," 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%, which is close to 9% 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.