The planned sale links Fairfax’s investment in IIFL Finance with its ambition to acquire the government-owned bank. According to the Economic Times report, proceeds from the exit would cover part of the funding for the proposed transaction, rather than the entire purchase.

Fairfax also has a consolidation plan for its banking interests. Once the IDBI acquisition is completed, it intends to combine CSB Bank and IDBI Bank. The report presents this as a way to make its lending interests less complex.

The sequence is important: the IIFL Finance exit is intended to support funding, while the proposed combination of the two banks would follow the acquisition. These are plans described in the report, not confirmation that the sale, takeover or merger has already happened.

The supplied report does not give a value for the planned IIFL Finance disposal or specify how much it would contribute towards the IDBI purchase. It also does not state a completion schedule or explain how the proposed bank combination would be carried out.