On February 15, 2021, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said it has received three bids for the troubled Punjab Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank and the central bank is now evaluating the offers.
Now it is reported that a set of investors which included foreign players has shown interest in the beleaguered bank.
There is one consortium which includes Centrum group and Fintech BharatPe, and another one is led by Surinder Mohan Arora, an Indian businessman. The third investor bidding for this bank is UK-based Liberty Group.
According to a news report, Arora along with Avtar Instalments (India), Alfa Pharma GmbH (Germany), Investment Fund (Mauritius), NexPact (Mauritius), Global Com Fin Investment LLC (Dubai), Ideal Vitamin Food Products (India), Bhamasha Textile (India), and two individuals —Vikram Ahuja and Prakash Ganpathy Pai. Arora-led consortium is pitching on turning PMC Bank into a small finance financial institution (SFB).
At present, the central bank and the committee are evaluating the bidders and the plan. RBI wants to ensure that the new investors will be fit to run an urban cooperative bank. If the bidders are deemed unfit, then the bank may face liquidation which would be the last option in the case of PMC bank.
The bank is expected to have around 9 lakh customers. In 2019, the RBI superseded the board of the PMC Bank after it found a massive fraud. About 70 percent of its total loan book of Rs 8,383 crore as on March 31, 2019, had been taken by real estate company, HDIL.
