HDFC Bank raises Rs 9,880 cr via QIP, ADR issue

Mumbai: Country’s largest lender by market value HDFC Bank today raised Rs 9,880 crore in the largest share sale in the secondary market by a private entity to overseas and domestic investors through a mix of qualified institutional placement and American depository shares. [caption id=“attachment_859005” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption]Merchant bankers said the issue has been successfully closed and the final pricing is expected shortly. According to merchant bankers who include Barclays, JM Financial, Citi, JP Morgan and BofA-ML among others, said the bank opened the QIP issue first and the ADR was launched a few hours later. The bank has plans to raise Rs 2,400 crore from QIP and the rest from ADRs, but sources said the composition got changed after the sale began. The HDFC Bank counter was trading up over 1 per cent at Rs 1,079.65 on the BSE at 1220 hrs. This is the largest share sale by a private sector entity and the second largest fund raising through by selling share in the secondary market after the bumper Rs 22,500 crore Coal India issue last week by the government. The Mumbai-based bank had opened the sale process without a roadshow late yesterday. Last month, the government had allowed increasing foreign holding in HDFC Bank. The application was pending for over a year. Parent HDFC holds 22.47 percent in the bank, FIIs 33.75 percent, ADRs/GDRs 16.84 percent and the rest is held by others, as of the September quarter. With over Rs 2.6 lakh crore market capitalisation, HDFC Bank trumps all other lenders in the country including SBI and ICICI. In December 2013, the Reserve Bank had prevented FIIs from holding more HDFC Bank stocks after their combined stake crossed 49 percent. PTI