HDFC Bank gains on RBI approval to sell stake in Credila Financial Services

On Friday, HDFC Bank announced that it has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to sell 90% of its stake in HDFC Credila Financial Services Ltd to a consortium of private equity players.

India's largest private bank is selling its stake to BPEA EQT group firm Kopvoorn B.V. and ChrysCapital group firms Moss Investments Limited, Defati Investments Holding B.V. and Infinity Partners. HDFC Bank, in a filing to the stock exchanges, said that erstwhile HDFC Ltd had entered into agreements with the private equity consortium to sell 90% of its stake in pureplay education loan company HDFC Credila for around ₹9,060 crore.

HDFC Ltd was merged with HDFC Bank on July 1, 2023. Before the merger, the RBI in April 2022 had mandated HDFC Ltd to bring down its stakeholding in subsidiary firm Credila to 10% in two years and refrain from onboarding new customers in the process.

As per the agreement, HDFC can appoint a single non-executive nominee director to the HDFC Credila board.

In August 2023, HDFC Bank received approval from the Competition Commission of India to sell 90% of equity holdings in HDFC Credila by the P.E. consortium of BPEA EQT and ChrysCapital.

HDFC Credila has pioneered the concept of specialist education loan lenders and became India's first dedicated education loan company. HDFC Credila funds students for higher education in both India and overseas.

HDFC Bank reported a 33% jump in net profit for the December quarter to ₹16,372 crore compared to ₹12,259 crore in the year-ago period.

HDFC Bank shares gained 0.66% to hit a high of ₹1,427.7 apiece in morning trade on Monday. Around 37.94 lakh shares traded on NSE in morning deals with a turnover of ₹539 crore.

HDFC Bank shares were trading 0.24% higher at ₹1,424.05 apiece at 11:52 am.