IDBI Bank privatisation: Government likely to invite EoIs in May

The government will invite expressions of interest (EoI) for IDBI Bank in May and aims to complete the privatisation in this current fiscal (FY23) itself, according to people in the know.

One may consider this a slight forward push in the timeline as earlier the street expected it in April. This can be attributed to two reasons mainly. One is that the government is tied up with planning for the LIC IPO and another is that post the Russia-Ukraine crisis there has been a lot of macro and market turbulence.

The privatisation is going to happen under the RBI framework, which basically bars corporate houses from bidding or being promoted as a bank, but within that, there is plenty of flexibility.