Fairfax Financial Holdings has cleared the government's hurdle to acquire IDBI Bank, but its bigger challenge lies inside the lender, where unions have pushed back and the culture remains close to a state-run entity. The United Forum of IDBI Officers & Employees “strongly opposes” the sale of a controlling stake to a “foreign entity,” while the government has assured employees their service interests will be protected. Analysts say moving a large unionised workforce to private-sector ways of working will be the hardest part. The Centre is selling a 60.72% stake in IDBI Bank to Fairfax, which holds 40% of CSB Bank; since RBI rules bar owning two banks, Fairfax must either sell that stake or merge CSB into IDBI Bank. IDBI Bank accounts for 1.2% of the banking system's loans and deposits, versus 0.2% for CSB Bank.
Summary written by Upside AI from the original article. Read the source for full details.
Read the original on livemint.com ↗
Related news
- IDBI Bank 60.72% stake sale to Canada Fairfax: Should FD holders and savings account customers worry? Experts decode
The sale of a combined 60.72% stake in IDBI Bank, held by the Government of India and LIC, to M/s 10955230 Canada Inc., whose parent is Fairfax Financial Holdings, awaits completion after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the strategic disinvestment. IDBI Bank's Q1 FY27 presentation for the quarter ended June 2026 showed total deposits of ₹3,25,757 crore, up 10% year-on-year. Experts say there is no immediate reason for depositors to worry: repayment obligations do not change, RBI oversight continues, and deposits are insured by DICGC up to ₹5 lakh per depositor per bank. Existing FDs keep their contracted rates, while rates on new deposits and savings account terms, such as minimum balances and charges, are more likely to change. Experts advise against withdrawing or closing FDs because of the sale and recommend watching official updates; reports indicate retrenchment of the roughly 16,000 employees is restricted for at least one year after new management takes control.
- India’s IDBI Bank falls 7% as government announces $5.5 billion stake sale to Canada's Fairfax
Shares of IDBI Bank fell more than 7% on Thursday after India's government announced it would sell a 60.7% stake in the state-owned lender to Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings for over 529 billion rupees ($5.5 billion). Once final approvals are obtained, the Ministry of Finance said the deal will be the largest foreign direct investment in India's financial sector. Fairfax's winning bid of 81 rupees per share was above the government's average fair value of 75.99 rupees, but below IDBI's closing price of 90.39 rupees on Wednesday. Fairfax must pass a 'fit and proper' assessment by the Reserve Bank of India. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will keep a minority stake, and the sale follows other share sales this year, including a $3.3 billion sale of a 6.5% stake in LIC in August.
- Jamie Dimon Says U.S. Economy Remains Strong, But Warns Of Risks ‘Shifting Under The Surface’ — JPM Stock Gains Despite Q3 Earnings Miss
- Sickle cell gene therapies offer new hope, but access remains a major challenge
Sickle cell disease can shorten life expectancy by up to 20 years, and in 2023 the FDA approved Casgevy and Lyfgenia, the first two gene therapies for severe forms of the disease. Patient advocates and clinicians say these advances could mark a new era of care that frees many from recurring painful episodes. However, access remains uneven, as costs, complex treatment processes, limited provider availability and differing access to specialized centers can keep eligible patients from treatment. The CDC estimates about 100,000 people in the U.S. have the disease, more than 90% of them non-Hispanic Black or African American. Gene therapy has reported high efficacy, with 88% to 94% of patients, while hydroxyurea, approved in 1998, halved the frequency of pain crises in studies.
- Alphabet’s Rapid Cloud Expansion AI Wins Matter But I Keep Buying For Something Else
The author keeps adding to Alphabet because of its $514 billion backlog of signed cloud commitments, not just cloud growth rate. Google Cloud revenue rose 82% to $24.77 billion in Q2, and backlog grew from $155 billion in Q3 2025 to $514 billion. Total Q2 revenue rose 24.2% to $119.80 billion, and the author notes Alphabet's P/E of about 16 is lower than Microsoft's 30 and Amazon's 36. The main risk is debt-funded buildout: long-term debt rose from $46.5 billion to $98.2 billion, Q2 free cash flow was -$5.86 billion, and buybacks were suspended. The author argues this borrowing is less risky because it is backed by signed customer demand.
- Carvana is winning customers , but faces a costly problem
Carvana (CVNA) sold 197,325 vehicles in the second quarter, up 38% from a year earlier, with record revenue of $7.38 billion and net income of $513 million. Higher interest rates are squeezing profit per car, as the spread the company earns on auto loans narrows when benchmark rates rise faster than customer APRs. Morgan Stanley kept its Overweight rating but cut its price target to $88 from $90 and its adjusted EBITDA estimate by 2% to $797 million. It models third-quarter Other GPU of $2,565 and calls the quarter a potential “clearing event” that could reset expectations before growth returns to focus. Carvana shares are down 30.30% year-to-date ahead of its October 28 report.
Related markets
Latest news
- Stock Market Midday, Oct. 19: Tech Stocks Rebound as AI Confidence Returns
As of 11:34 AM ET, the S&P 500 is up 0.85% at 7,725 and the Nasdaq Composite has risen 1.67% to 26,576 as growth stocks rebound from their worst week since June. The Dow Jones is up 0.15% at 52,094. Gold has fallen 0.51% to $4,145.56, while the 10-Year Treasury yield has gained 3 basis points to 5.13%. Sandisk (+7.4%) and Micron Technology (+4.7%) rose on a shift in memory sentiment, Intel climbed after a JPMorgan upgrade, and Amazon.com gained after Morgan Stanley raised its price target and named it a top pick. Real estate and consumer defensive stocks posted the biggest losses, while U.S. homebuilder confidence fell to a 14-year low and violent protests in France and Italy weighed on European equities.
- Jensen Huang: “Two Gigawatts to Us Is Like $80 Billion.” 43 New Gigawatts Coming in 2027
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said two gigawatts of AI capacity, like the ones Nvidia announced in Australia, are worth about $80 billion to the company, up from about $18 billion per gigawatt previously. He attributed the increase to Nvidia now selling far more of each data center, including networking, CPUs, storage and security, not just GPUs. Citing SemiAnalysis's Dylan Patel on the BG2 podcast, Altimeter Capital's Brad Gerstner said 43 gigawatts of new AI compute will come online next year. At about $40 billion per gigawatt, Nvidia would need around 17 gigawatts to reach the $692 billion revenue estimate for fiscal 2028, though Huang said land, power and data center buildings are the main obstacles to the build-out.
- The Investment Case for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
Diamond Hill's Large Cap Strategy returned 3.18% net of fees in Q3 2026, outperforming the 2.61% return of the Russell 1000 Value Index, and added JPMorgan Chase as a new holding. The firm said JPMorgan's scale should support continued technology investment that improves efficiency, helping contain expense growth and drive operating leverage. It expects below-average returns across the market due to high equity valuations, though attractive bottom-up opportunities remain. As of October 16, 2026, JPM closed at $339.72, with a $903.04 billion market cap, up 5.43% year-to-date and trading in a 52-week range of $279.10 to $366.50. Hedge fund portfolios holding JPM fell to 113 at the end of Q2 from 131 the previous quarter.
- Strive buys $335M in Bitcoin, boosting holdings to 36,818 BTC
Bitcoin treasury company Strive bought 4,045 BTC for about $335 million last week, raising its total holdings to 36,818 BTC, according to a Monday SEC filing. The purchases were made between Oct. 12 and 16 at an average price of $82,803 per coin, including fees. That makes Strive the fourth-largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, ahead of MARA Holdings, with reserves worth about $3 billion. The company also received about $369 million from warrant exercises and issued 13.7 million common shares, and it priced a $630 million offering of SATS preferred stock carrying a fixed 15% annual dividend, with proceeds that could fund more Bitcoin purchases. ASST shares rose about 7.7% to $25.95 in late-morning trading Monday.
- SpaceX Could Buy Tesla for $480 Per Share in $3.74 Trillion Merger, RBC Says
According to RBC Capital Markets, SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) could acquire Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) for $480 per share, creating a combined company worth $3.74 trillion. Tesla shareholders would hold just 48% of the merged business, down from 54% in the bank's July estimate.
- Apple announces another event – with a whole new kind of MacBook expected
Apple has invited press to an event titled “Pro and Tell” in Los Angeles on 28 October, announced by marketing chief Greg Joswiak on X. The headline launch is expected to be a new MacBook Pro with the company's first touchscreen, which is rumoured to be lighter, use M5 Pro and Max chips, and feature an OLED display with the Dynamic Island, at a higher price than current models. Apple may also introduce a new iPad Mini, an updated iMac and a refresh of the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro. It would be Apple's third launch in two months, following the early-September iPhone event and last week's Welcome Home event, and comes as CEO John Ternus reportedly pushes for faster new product launches.
Get the briefing on Telegram or Zalo
Join the Upside Telegram channel or Zalo group for the Vietnam stocks and gold briefing at 8:00 and 19:00 (Vietnam time) on trading days, plus a weekly wrap on Saturday morning.