IDBI Bank scraps IDBI Home Finance sale, looks at acquisitions
26 Nov 2009
State-owned IDBI Bank has scrapped plans to sell its wholly owned arm IDBI Home Finance (the bank had even invited bids for sale of the unit) and is instead looking at acquisitions.
IDBI Bank is currently in the process of identifying acquisition targets, Yogesh Agarwal, chairman and managing director of IDBI Bank, said on the sidelines of a banking conference on Wednesday.
"We have enough capital to fund acquisitions," he added.
He said IDBI Home Finance would continue as its wholly owned subsidiary for now. "It will continue to be a 100 per cent subsidiary at present. We have scrapped plans to sell the unit," Agarwal said.
IDBI Bank initiated the sell-off process for the home finance unit a year back as it was leading to duplication of operations, but the plan got stuck as the central government refused permission to sell the unit, sources said.
Housing finance companies in the country have been going through a lean period over the past one-year or so in the wake of the housing market slump.
IDBI Bank, Aggarwal said, expects credit offtake to pick up by end-December. He also expect retail loan rates to move up "anytime now".
"We are hopeful of maintaining the loan growth target of 18 per cent by the end of the financial year," said Agarwal.