Overview
- The central government and LIC are now evaluating revised financial offers from Canada’s Fairfax Financial and Dubai’s Emirates NBD after two Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment meetings and an Inter‑Ministerial Group review on July 13.
- Bloomberg and other reports identify Fairfax as the frontrunner with a bid reported at about $5 billion, while market estimates place a possible deal value in the roughly $5–5.7 billion range.
- The sale had stalled in March when earlier bids fell below the government’s reserve price, prompting a fresh valuation exercise that led to the current round of revised offers.
- Any successful bidder will still need a Reserve Bank of India ‘fit and proper’ clearance and approvals from statutory bodies such as the Competition Commission before management control can change hands.
- News of the revived process pushed IDBI shares up roughly 3–5%, and a completed sale would be a large foreign investment that could accelerate the government’s wider privatisation and disinvestment agenda.