IFCI?s stake sale seems to be mired in one controversy after the other. Following chairman N Balasubramanian?s resignation from the board of IFCI on Saturday, over allegations about his role as the company?s chairman as well as an advisor to one of the bidders, yet another director of IFCI, Vinayak Chatterjee, is slated to tender his resignation on the same grounds.

Chatterjee is the chairman of Feedback Ventures, an integrated infrastructure services company in which Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) has a 19.4 % stake. IDFC has already expressed its interest in picking up IFCI?s 26 % stake and has submitted its bid on Friday. IDFC is, in fact, one amongst the seven solo bidders who have not bid in consortium with other players. Hence, on the issue of conflict of interest, Chatterjee is understood to be putting in his papers either Monday or Tuesday, senior officials of IFCI told FE.

Chatterjee is also the co-chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry?s apex council on infrastructure.

Balasubramanian, an advisor to Standard Chartered Bank, resigned from the IFCI board when the foreign bank decided to bid for the stake.

IFCI has received bids from 10 suitors, out of which seven are stand-alone, including domestic financial institution IDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, GE Capital, Cargill, French banking company Nataxis, US-based private equity fund manager Blackstone and Newbridge.

Three consortia also submitted their EoIs to acquire the strategic stake in the company. Anil Agrawal-owned Sterlite industries has formed consortium with Morgan Stanley. HDFC Ltd has formed a consortium with Standard Chartered Bank, Goldman Sachs and WL Ross for the purpose. The third consortium comprises Punjab National Bank, Shinsei Bank of Japan and US-based investor JC Flowers.

Ernst & Young will evaluate the EoIs to shortlist investors, which could participate in the bidding process.

The name of the shortlisted investors will be announced on September 25. Ernst & Young (E&Y) had been appointed by IFCI as a consultant to find a strategic partner for reviving the financial institution.