The bank was first approached by lender Clix Capital, a part of the Clix Group and majority owned by Mumbai-based private equity firm AION Capital Partners, with a letter of intent in June.

AION is a partnership between New York-based Apollo Global Management and ICICI Venture, a unit of India's ICICI Bank.

The Chennai-based lender, which has been struggling with bad loans and governance issues, has been looking for a buyer since last year. The central bank had in last October rejected a proposal for it to merge with shadow lender Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.

The Reserve Bank of India approved a three-member committee of directors to manage the bank's operations last month after the shareholders ousted directors, including the chief executive officer.

The bank did not give further details on the offer from Clix Group on Thursday.

(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)