Govt To Sell Up To 6% Stake In Bank Of Maharashtra Via OFS

The government aims to sell up to 6% stake in Bank of Maharashtra via an offer-for-sale, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said in an update on social media.

The OFS will open on Tuesday for non-retail investors. Retain investors will be allowed to place bids on Wednesday, DIPAM said.

"Government offers to disinvest 5% equity in the bank with an additional 1% as a green shoe option," it added. The floor price has been fixed as Rs 54 per share.

At the current market price, the base offer is worth about Rs 2,200 crore, and the green shoe option may fetch the government an additional amount of around Rs 400 crore.

As per the shareholding data available for the quarter ended September 2025, the Centre held 612.26 crore shares, or 79.6% stake in Bank of Maharashtra.

The remaining 156.89 crore shares, or 20.4% stake, are held by public shareholders.

The OFS will help the government to trim its stake in the state-owned lender below 75%. This would end up increasing the public shareholding above 25%, which is in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India's regulations.

In August, the state-owned Bank of Maharashtra expressed confidence of meeting the minimum public shareholding norm of 25%.

One more round of share sale will help the bank with both capital adequacy and lower government stake, its Managing Director and CEO Nidhu Saxena was reported as saying by news agency PTI on Aug. 26.

Notably, the finance ministry has asked five public-sector banks — Bank of Maharashtra, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India, and Punjab & Sind Bank — to increase the public shareholding limit to 25% by August 1, 2026.

On Monday, Bank of Maharashtra's scrip closed 1.54% lower at Rs 57.66 apiece on the BSE, as compared to 0.08% decline in the benchmark Sensex. The stock has risen by nearly 10% in the year so far.