Bidders for IDBI Bank to declare no conviction or adverse regulatory orders

Interested bidders in the IDBI Bank have to submit a legal declaration that they have not been convicted by any court, indicted or received any adverse order from regulators such as SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office), NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) and NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal) for a grave offence.

The move comes in the backdrop of the government terminating the sale of Central Electronics Ltd (CEL) to Nandal Finance & Leasing last month holding that the litigation pending against the successful bidder at the NCLAT violates the eligibility criteria for the sale.

The Centre is also yet to take a final call on whether or not to hand over Pawan Hans to the winning bidder Star9 Mobility, a consortium of Big Charter Pvt Ltd, Maharaja Aviation Pvt Ltd and Almas Global Opportunity Fund SPC. After selecting the consortium as the successful bidder, it was found that Almas Global had been prosecuted by the NCLT for not paying up after emerging as the successful resolution applicant under the insolvency process for Kolkata-based power transmission company EMC Ltd. The government had then withheld issuing a Letter of Award (LoA) to the winning consortium, applying brakes on the second such privatisation after Central Electronics.

In the expression of interest (EoI) of IDBI Bank put out by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on Friday, LIC and the government will jointly sell 60.7 per cent of their stake in the bank.

The EoI mandates that the interested party (IP) certify that the sole bidder or any member of consortium or its controlling shareholders or affiliate or entities controlled by the IPs such as directors key managerial persons is not convicted by any court of law, indicted, or has any adverse order been passed against it by a regulatory authority “which would cast a doubt on its ability to close the transaction or manage the Companies when it is disinvested or which related to a grave offence that outrages the moral sense of the community.”

“If an IP and/or any member of Consortium is found involved in corrupt practices, unfair means, or illegal activities during any stage of its bid or during pre-contract or post-contract stage, the IP/any member of Consortium shall be disqualified, at the sole discretion of GoI,” the EoI said.  

The last date for submitting written queries for strategic disinvestment of IDBI bank by interested bidders is October 28, and that for putting in bids is December 16.

The Centre has engaged KPMG India as transaction advisor and “Link Legal” as legal advisor for providing advisory services and managing the transaction.