State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation are among the front runners to pick up stake in the Asia's oldest bourse Bombay Stock Exchange, which has to demutualise by May 19.
Under demutualisation, the bourses has to off-load 51 per cent of the stake in the stock exchanges owned by 790 brokers.
The stock exchange has already offloaded 10 per cent stake to Deutsche Bourse and Singapore Exchange Limited and the remaining 41 per cent has to be sold by next week.
BSE has received interest from over 20 leading domestic and foreign financial institutions for offloading remaining 41 per cent stake.
The long overdue announcement of the remaining 41 per cent stake is likely next week, a BSE official told a news agency.
The BSE is keeping the names of the companies which have applied for picking up stakes under wraps but indication are SBI, LIC and Bank of India are among 20 companies and FIS that have applied for.
“We cannot divulge the names since approvals from regulatory bodies like RBI and SEBI were still in the process,” BSE MD & CEO Rajnikant Patel said.
The exchange said the response is overwhelming from investors across the globe and India to purchase the 41 per cent equity.
The 20 applicants included leading domestic financial institutions, foreign funds domestic corporate houses and reputable high networth individuals. They add up to more than the 41 per cent equity on offer.
Source : Zee News