IDBI Bank’s stake sale is set for further delay as low bidder interest has prompted the government to cancel the bid process for the appointment of an asset valuer.

A fresh Request For Proposal (RFP) would be invited soon after a review of some of the bid criteria to enable better interest from bidders.

"It has been decided with the approval of the competent authority to cancel the present RFP and to issue a fresh RFP for selection of an asset valuer for strategic disinvestment of IDBI Bank Ltd," DIPAM said in a corrigendum.

"We had only a single bid. A fresh RFP will be issued soon after we review some of the criteria to enable better interest from bidders," news agency PTI quoted a government official as saying.

The government, along with LIC, is selling nearly 61% stake in IDBI Bank and in January received multiple Expressions of Interest (EoIs) for the same.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey had last week said the IDBI Bank strategic sale transaction is "on course" but the transaction would not be completed in the current fiscal.

"We practically don't think that before March we can conclude it (IDBI Bank stake sale)," Pandey had said.

As part of the strategic sale process, on September 1, DIPAM invited bids for appointing an asset valuer and the last date for submission of bids was October 9. The deadline was later extended till October 30.

The asset valuer was mandated to identify intangibles not on the IDBI Bank balance sheet, like brand name, branch network and value them.

The terms of reference for asset valuers included describing and listing of all the properties and assets, including intangibles such as trademark(s), title to property rights being valued, as provided by the bank.

Valuation of intangibles were required to be indicated separately.

The DIPAM had earlier said the bank has 120 properties in the top seven cities. These include 68 properties in Mumbai, 20 in Pune, nine in Chennai and seven in Ahmedabad. Besides, it has six properties in Kolkata and five each in Delhi and Hyderabad.

The asset properties in the seven cities account for 94% of the total written down value (after accounting for depreciation) of fixed assets of IDBI Bank, PTI reported.

The government and LIC together hold 94.72% stake in IDBI Bank.

Pursuant to the strategic sale transaction, the government will own 15% stake and LIC 19% shareholding in IDBI Bank, taking their total holding to 34%.