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Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, or FTIL, has received 10 offers for its stake in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). FTIL has agreed to sell 24 per cent stake in the bourse. It has informed the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) it is in the process of divesting stake and the process could take six-eight weeks.
"Interested parties have been communicated to submit their non-binding offers in the next few weeks," said a source privy to the development.
An FTIL spokesperson declined to comment.
In December 2013, FMC had issued an order, saying FTIL and a few others, including promoter Jignesh Shah, weren't 'fit and proper' to run MCX, following a default of Rs 5,574 crore at its subsidiary National Spot Exchange Ltd in July. FTIL had challenged the order in the high court here. However, the court hasn't stayed the order so far. FMC feels as MCX is directly regulated by it, the exchange has to implement the FMC order.
FTIL holds 26 per cent stake in MCX; FMC wants this to be reduced to less than two per cent.
FTIL has told FMC it expects to complete the process of divesting stake after screening the non-binding offers. It has set up a committee to oversee the process and this will review and short-list the entities for the final binding offers. This committee will also recommend a final interested entity to the FTIL board.
Apart from FTIL, the process is also crucial for MCX, as early this week, FMC had asked it to ensure its stake-sale order was implemented by April 30. Till then, FMC has put approvals of MCX contracts on hold. It has also warned the exchange if the order isn't implemented within the deadline, it will have to face consequences.
Last month, MCX had asked FTIL to sell stake, failing which its shares would be put in an escrow account and its voting rights frozen to the permissible limit of two per cent.
