Punjab National Bank is yet to take a view on re-bidding for a strategic stake in financial company IFCI, Chairman K C Chakrabarty said on Tuesday.

IFCI's board will meet on June 12 to decide on a possible stake sale, six months after it rejected an offer of a consortium of Sterlite Industries and Morgan Stanley.

PNB, along with Japan's Shinsei Bank and US investor J C Flowers, had shown interest in IFCI last year.

If other people approach us and if it looks as an exciting opportunity, we may bid," Chakrabarty told reporters.



Last year, the IFCI stake sale plan attracted bids from 7 individual firms and three consortia that included GE Capital Corp, Natixis, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered Bank.

PNB shares were up 1.2 per cent at Rs 450 while IFCI gained 2.2 per cent to trade at Rs 59.95 in a weak Mumbai market that was down nearly 1 per cent.

Chakrabarty said the bank's profit margins were under pressure due to the tight monetary stance maintained by the central bank for the past two years.

Last month, the state-run lender forecast a 22 per cent profit growth in the fiscal year to March 2009 from Rs 2049 crore in 2007/08. It aims to maintain a net interest margin of 3.5-3.6 per cent.

PNB has no plans to revise deposit and lending rates at present, Chakrabarty said, but added: "If there is a signal for more tightening, we will consider raising the rates."

Chakrabarty added PNB will get between Rs 1000 crore and Rs 1500 crore from the government in lieu of farm loans written off under a debt waiver scheme for farmers, announced in the federal budget in February.