The IDBI Bank-led consortium had to abandon the proposed sale of stake in rating agency CARE Ratings as there was only one bidder and the bid price was below the target price. Stating this, M.S. Raghavan, CMD of the bank, said there was only one bidder for the entire block of about 35% stake that was sought to be sold as the time extension requested by other aspirants could not be given.The stake sale was being done through competitive bidding which required multiple bidders and a sole bidder was not enough, he added. Barings Asia was the sole bidder for the stake. IDBI Bank, which has 17% stake in CARE Ratings, was looking for over Rs 900 a share and the bid that was received came below that price. The consortium included State Bank of India, Canara Bank and Federal Bank besides IDBI Bank. Raghavan said that it was left to the respective banks concerned to decide the way they want to offload their stakes. He said there will be no re-bid this fiscal as it will not meet the need of bolstering capital by end March this year.
