People's Bank of China acquires 1pc stake in HDFC : Report
Mumbai/ IBNS: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has acquired 1.01 per cent stake in the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd., media reports said on Sunday, adding that the buying in the largest housing finance lenders happened possibly in the March quarter.
This is seen as a major development for the Indian financial sector.
According to an NDTV report, PBOC acquired nearly 1.75 crore shares in HDFC in the quarter ended March, the company disclosed in a BSE filing.
The purchase of shares came at a time when the share prices of HDFC fell over 25 per cent amid stock market downturn triggered by coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown across the globe.
HDFC's Vice-Chairman and CEO Keiki Mistry told NDTV that PBOC is an existing shareholder and held 0.8 per cent share in the company till March, 2019.
He said the Chinese Bank's shareholding has been disclosed now as it reached 1 per cent regulatory threshold, and it had acquired the shares over a period of more than a year, said the report.
The foreign portfolio investors hold 70.88 per cent of the shares of the company, including Government of Singapore which holds 3.23 per cent shares in the company, it added.
Keki Mistry told Moneycontrol that the PBOC has been an existing shareholder and had owned 0.8 percent in the company as of March 2019. "They have been accumulating the shares over a year and are now holding 1.1 percent," Mistry said.
