Punjab National Bank (PNB) has put up for sale its 4% stake in Crif High Mark Credit Information Services, according to a sale document.
The bank has appointed PNB Investment Services as the merchant banker for the sale.
Apart from PNB, Alpha Micro Finance Consultants also intends to offload its 2% stake in the credit information firm. The last date for submission of bids from domestic investors is February 21.
The sale is likely to fetch the lender around Rs 20 crore, based on the floor price formula for the sale, which, according to the sale document, has been set at Rs 103 per share.
“PNB Investment Services (“PNBISL/Advisors”) has been appointed as Merchant Bankers/Advisors by PNB and AM for the intended stake sale. PNBISL invites bids from domestic investors for purchase of 19,26,531 shares held by PNB representing 3.98%, and 9,63,265 shares held by AM representing 1.99% in CRIF High Mark,” the sale document said.
Sale of non-core assets is a key element of PNB’s plan for recovery. Reeling under the impact of the Nirav Modi fraud, PNB had seen a depletion in capital in the preceding quarters of FY19. In the December quarter, the bank completed provisioning towards the fraud account.
PNB managing director and CEO Sunil Mehta said the company’s financial numbers are back in black.“We have honoured all our commitments. Our bank, as on date, has provided all for that incident (Nirav Modi fraud). We suffered because of the one-off incident which has now been absorbed by the bank,” he said.
The country’s second-largest public sector lender had reported a net loss of Rs 13,417 crore in the March quarter of FY18 – the largest quarterly loss in the history of Indian banking as the withdrawal of restructuring schemes for stressed assets and the Nirav Modi fraud took their toll. In the same quarter of FY17, the bank had posted a net profit of Rs 262 crore.
Source: Financial Express