IFCI shareholders approve hike in FII holding to 74 per cent
20 Oct 2007
Shareholders approved the raising of FII limit in the company to 74 per cent from the present 24 per cent at the annual general meeting held recently, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.
IFCI is in the process of inducting a strategic investor by sale of 26 per cent stake in the company. As of September 30, FIIs held 21.2 per cent stake in the company.
It has already shortlisted eight entities out of 10 which had submitted Expression of Interest (EoI) while two entities - NewBridge Capital of the US and Kotak Mahindra Bank - had opted out of the race.
GE Corporation, Industrial Development Financial Company Ltd, Cargill Financial Services Corporation, Natixis, the Blackstone Group are in the fray. The three consortia - Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd, Morgan Stanley and Co consortium, WL Ross and Co Llc, GS Capital Partners (VI) Fund, Standard Chartered Bank and HDFC, Shinsei Bank Ltd, PNB and JC Flower and Co Llc are also in the race.
Meanwhile, financial institutions who have lent huge sums of money to IFCI are likely to opt for converting their loans into shares.
A few days after IFCI announced its offer to lenders the view is firming up among the public sector banks.
If
IFCI agrees to convert even up to 50 per cent of the debentures into equity, banks
would be banks would be keen to cash in. The pricing of course would be as per
the SEBI formula. IFCI owes Rs1,479 crore to 30 public sector banks and government
institutions.