Re: {LONGTERMINVESTORS} Citigroup to sell entire 9.85% stake in HDFC
RAJESH DESAI
Citigroup Inc(C.N) plans to raise up to $2.1 billion by selling its entire stake in Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) on Friday, three source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters.
Citigroup has launched the process to sell about 145 million shares, or a 9.9 percent stake, in HDFC for between 630 rupees and 703.55 rupees per share, said the sources, declining to be named as the deal is not public yet.
Shares in India's top mortgage lender HDFC, which has a market value of $21 billion, ended down 0.1 percent at 701.30 rupees in a weak Mumbai market ahead of the news.
The lower end of sale price range represents a discount of 10 percent to HFDC's Thursday close. Citi is the sole bookrunner for the deal, the sources said.
HDFC Chief Executive Keki Mistry told Reuters the company had been informed about the launch of the deal by Citi, but declined to give details. A spokesman for Citigroup in India declined to comment.
Citi is the largest shareholder in HDFC, and one of the sources said the U.S. bank was selling the stake to shore up its capital to meet new global banking rules.
Citi sold a 1.5 percent holding in HDFC in June last year in a deal that the bank said would give it a pre-tax profit of $160 million.
The third-largest U.S. bank by assets bought just under 10 percent of HDFC in 2006 for about 29 billion rupees and subsequently added to its stake, to become the lender's top shareholder with a 11.37 percent holding.
Thursday's deal is the fourth large stake sale through stock market deals in India this month, as investors rush to take advantage of a sharp surge in share prices.
Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, Carlyle Group and Warburg Pincus have raised about $740 million by paring their stakes in financial companies in three separate deals earlier this month.
The Sensex is up nearly 17 percent so far this year, mainly led by financial stocks.
(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Indulal P.M.; additional reporting by Elzio Barreto in HONG KONG; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)
Citigroup to sell entire 9.85% stake in HDFC
NDTV Correspondent, 23 Feb 2012 | 04:47 PMEmail0 0 0 0CA MIHIR DESAICitigroup is looking to exit entire 9.85 per cent stake in HDFC, sources tell NDTV Profit. The company has opened a book for offering 14.5 crore HDFC shares .
The price band of the book is set in the range of Rs 630- Rs 703 per share. Citigroup has also offered a discount of 0-10 per cent on today's closing price. It is also learnt that the sale of stake is a part of Citigroup's ongoing capital planning efforts.
Commenting on the development, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh said, "Citigroup has informed us that they have placed their shares in the market. Their exit is linked to new capital adequacy rules under Basel 3."
Citigroup sold a 1.5 per cent holding in HDFC In June last year; it has been an investor in HDFC since 2005.
US-based private-equity company, Carlyle Group, also reduced its stake to about 4 per cent in HDFC on February 1. Carlyle had 5.22 per stake in HDFC; it sold about 1.3 per cent stake in the company through open market transaction.
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CA. Rajesh Desai