Foreign banks except Deutsche stay away from Rs 42,000 crore divestment plan

News:

• The government’s ambitious disinvestment plan for 2015-16 has run into an unusual hurdle, with its first call for bankers to advise it on the state-run firms’ shares sales eliciting a tepid response, especially from foreign banks that used to vigorously jostle for these mandates in earlier years.
• Barring Deutsche, no foreign bank has participated in the bids for the mandate to help the government sell stakes in 10 companies aimed at raising more than Rs 42,000 crore ($7 billion) during this fiscal year, people familiar with the exercise .
• The government has divided the 10 companies whose shares it intends to sell into two baskets of five companies each. Bankers selected for one basket will have to handle all the five companies in it, according to the bidding process.
• n addition to the 10 companies, the government has also decided to sell a 5% stake in Power Finance Corporation of India to raise about Rs 1,700 crore.

Source: ET