FTIL Appoints Investment Banker to Sell Stake in IEX

Financial Technologies today said it plans to exit from exchanges businesses and has appointed investment bankers to sell its stake in the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).

Jignesh Shah-led FTIL is in the process of divesting its stake in commodity, stocks and energy exchanges after it was declared unfit to own and run any exchanges by respective markets regulators SEBI, FMC and CERC.

FTIL was declared as unfit to run any exchanges after the Rs 5,600 crore payment scam surfaced at its group entity National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) in July-end last year.

In a filing to the BSE, FTIL said: "As communicated to you earlier, FTIL would like to exit from exchanges businesses.

Accordingly, the process of divestment in exchanges is been evaluated considering all options, including through IPO.

Accordingly, FTIL has appointed investment Bankers to sell its stake in IEX.

IEX is country's leading power exchange with a market share of more than 95 per cent. Currently, FTIL holds 25.64 per cent stake in the energy bourse.

In May, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) had directed FTIL to sell its entire stake in IEX and had given deadline of September 30 this year.

In its order, the CERC had also said that "pending divestment of shares, the voting rights of FTIL shall stand extinguished and any corporate benefit in lieu of such shareholding shall be kept in abeyance or withheld by the exchange".

To comply with the regulatory norms, FTIL has already sold its subsidiary National Bulk Handling Corp Ltd (NBHC) for Rs 242 crore.

FTIL first sold six per cent stake in MCX through a series of open market transactions. Last month, it signed an agreement with Kotak Mahindra group to sell 15 per cent stake in Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) for Rs 459 crore. FTIL is now left with 5 per cent in MCX.