Over 12 players show interest in buying stake in IL&FS securities business

The IL&FS group will shortly be launching the asset monetisation process for the sale of many other assets as part of its ongoing resolution process

Over a dozen players have evinced interest to acquire stakes in two arms of debt-ridden Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS).

The firms — IL&FS Securities Services Ltd (ISSL) and ISSL Settlement & Transaction Services Ltd (ISTSL) — are part of the asset monetisation process, initiated a fortnight ago, towards developing a resolution plans for IL&FS, the group said.

The board is scrutinising the expressions of interest from banks, private equity firms and financial sector entities. 

In the next step, IL&FS will give access to business information to the qualified interested bidders to enable them to submit commercial bids. The IL&FS gro­up said it would soon launch monetisation process for its other assets too. The group has 348 subsidiaries, nearly half of which are overseas.

The binding transaction for the sale of the assets and the resulting resolution plan(s) will be subject to requisite approvals, including from the NCLT, before the transactions are concluded.

The board of IL&FS had submitted a report on the way forward to the ministry of corporate affairs at the end of October. The MCA, in turn, had submitted it to the NCLT.