Five lenders jostle to grab Citi’s India premium retail business, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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The race for Citi Bank’s India retail business is set to get fierce as the five lenders in the race have either growth ambitions or gaps to fill.

HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and DBS Bank have emerged as the top five contenders to take over Citi India’s estimated $2-billion retail business that includes, credit cards, mortgages, wealth management and

deposits. The race will be narrowed down to three, with whom Citi would negotiate a higher value.

The bidders will look to pre-empt competition by denying rivals an opportunity to grab a bigger pie of the market.

The suitors

DBS Bank is considered one of the potential buyers of these businesses given its deep pockets and ambitions to expand in India. In November last year, the Singaporean lender completed the first of its kind RBI directed acquisition of a distressed lender taking control of Chennai based Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB).

DBS India has already infused more than $1 billion into India in its relatively new existence in the country and though LVB gives its wider access to South India, it may look at Citi’s credit card portfolio to kick start that business in India. DBS does not offer credit cards in the country currently.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, which was said to be exploring an acquisition of IndusInd Bank and refused the offer for Yes Bank, may be finally looking to lay its hands on the big business on offer.

HDFC Bank, which is facing a ban from the Reserve Bank of India for onboarding new customers, and facing stiff competition from ICICI Bank stands to gain some of the lost opportunity with the Citi business buy.

What’s on offer?

Citi’s total assets In India at the end of FY20, including credit extended to Indian institutional clients from offshore Citi entities, stood at Rs 2.99 crore.

The consumer banking business, which includes cards and loans against property, would be around Rs 32,000 crore. It also has a huge amount of savings accounts built over the last few years, which has a lucrative liability book and also credit cards, in which it was the largest among foreign banks in India.

The bank also had Rs 27,911 crore of loans to agriculture, affordable housing renewable energy and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Of this, Rs 4,975 crore was to weaker sections, as part of Citi India’s priority sector lending obligations, results released last year showed.

Citi Bank has 2.8 million retail customers, 1.2 million bank accounts and nearly 2.6 million credit cards as of June.

Citi’s consumer business contributes about a third to the overall India business in terms of profitability, while total India business contributes 1.5% of profits to the global book. Overall, Citibank’s India unit had a market share of advances and deposits of 0.6% and 1.1%, respectively.

Citi credit cards

Citi started retail operations in India in 1985 and was among the pioneers of credit cards in the country. However, its share of credit cards has dropped from 13% to 6% now. Despite being the sixth-largest player in the space, Citi has the highest average spend on its card touching close to 2 lakh per card. The average spends per card for Citi is 1.4 times higher than the industry average, making it a profitable business for the bank in India. The other four major players have had nearly the same steady growth in spend per card at 11-12%.

Citibank’s outstanding credit cards as of February stood at 2.65 million, the largest among foreign banks in India, ahead of 1.46 million by Standard Chartered and 1.56 million by Amex. Citi India had 2.9 million retail customers with 1.2 million bank accounts as of March 2020.

At the end of March 2020, Citibank served 2.9 million retail customers with 1.2 million bank accounts and 2.2 million credit card accounts.

The market

The total number of cards in circulation in India, as per a Worldline India Digital Payment report for 2020, stood at 946.81 million as of December 2020. As of December 2020, the average ticket size of credit cards was Rs 3,653, while that of debit cards was Rs 2,568, Worldline said. However, according to a 2019 report, despite being the fifth-largest player in the space, Citi has highest average spend on its card touching close to 2 lakh per card. The Indian credit card market is a fairly crowded place with 74 players operating. The top 5 players, however, have a comfortable 78% share by the number of cards and 75% share by credit card spend. HDFC bank is the leader at close to 31% share followed by SBI cards at 19%, which is trailed by ICICI, Axis, and Citi.

Earlier acquisitions

Local lenders have profited from foreign banks’ exit from India over the last decade. IndusInd Bank for example brought and built up Deutsche Bank’s credit card portfolio in 2011 and followed it up by buying Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) diamond financing business in 2015. Another private sector RBL Bank also started its credit card business by purchasing the portfolio from RBS in 2013.



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Why Should Investors Put Money In The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme Recently Issued By The RBI?

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Investment

oi-Kuntala Sarkar

|

The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2021-22 – Series V is open for subscription from today (9th August) to 13th August 2021. The RBI press release stated, “The nominal value of the bond based on the simple average closing price [published by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd (IBJA)] for gold of 999 purity of the last three business days of the week preceding the subscription period.” That will work out to Rs. 4790 per 1 gram gold.

Why Should Investors Put Money In The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme?

The union government has also decided to offer a discount of Rs. 50/- per gram lesser than the nominal value to those investors who will apply online and the payment against the application is made through digital mode. For such investors, the issue price of a gold bond will be Rs. 4740 per 1 gram gold.

Why people should invest in SGB?

The gold prices are quite low in India now since last year. This present time is actually witnessing the highest drop in gold prices in one year period over more than one decade. It saw a 13% drop in one year period. Data published by the Value Research for Nippon India ETF GoldBeES informs – “the worst calendar year return for the precious metal since 2009 was in 2013 when it dropped by 14.08%”. Hence, people are thinking more to invest in gold.

However, in the case of investing in physical gold, the investor will not receive any interest rate. Additionally, in the case of physical gold, there are making charges, GST and if invested on a large scale there will be storage costs. SGB is a lucrative option in this regard because there will be no such challenge as it comes in the form of a certificate.

By investing in SGB, the investor will get a fixed interest rate of 2.5% which will be payable on a half-yearly basis. The last interest will be payable on its maturity along with the principal amount. This is not an option for physical gold; only SGBs offer that. In addition to that, no ‘capital gain tax’ will be charged on the redemption of the bond. The SGB can also be considered as collateral for loans.

With SGB, comes the facility of easy liquidity for the investor. These bonds too can be traded on exchanges or the secondary market. SGBs are generally issues for 8 eight years terms. But this term can be bypassed. If somebody invests in the SGBs now but later thinks to sell the bond, it can be done on an exchange. There will be available buyers in the secondary market to buy the old bonds. Also, it is sometimes profitable to buy SGB from the secondary market because in some cases the SGB can be obtained at a lesser price.

The government is encouraging more people to invest in gold in the form of SGB. Through this bond, the government and the RBI will also be able to defuse money from the economy and keep it to the RBI. It might help to control the growing inflation rates to some extend.

Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB) has been announced in six tranches from May 2021 to September 2021 that is issued by the RBI on behalf of the union government.

Through both commercial banks and state banks, one can invest in SGBs. These bonds are granted in the form of stock certificates. The bonds are available for conversion to Demat form.



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3 Stocks To Buy With 20% to 30% Upside, According To ICICI Securities

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Affle India: Implied upside of 34%

Affle India (Affle) is a technology platform that allows advertisers to target their ads.

According to the brokerage, Jampp is shifting from a cost per install (CPI) to a cost per conversion (CPCU) model by encouraging advertisers to contribute more data, integrating it with the cloud, connecting it to the core platform, and integrating data. This will aid Jampp in improving its sales and profit trajectory in the long run. Direct clients have increased from 61 percent in FY21 to 71 percent in FY22E, indicating that the company is doing well.

Current Market Price Rs 4210
Target Price Rs 5635
Potential upside 34%

Why buy the shares of Affle India?

Why buy the shares of Affle India?

“Affle’s share price has grown by ~5x since listing (from ~Rs 843 in August 2016 to ~Rs 4,210 levels in August 2021). Though we maintain a BUY rating, margin dilution prompts us to revise target price downwards from Rs 6,225 to Rs 5,635 Target Price and Valuation: We value Affle at Rs 5,635 i.e. 65x P/E on FY23E EPS.

Aside from Affle, we appreciate Just Dial in our IT coverage. Positives include a shift in promoters and a shift in advertising to the internet medium. BUY with a target price of Rs 1,250″, the brokerage has said.

Key triggers for future price performance:

  • Increased smart phone penetration and expanding online consumers (from 120 million to 450 million, CAGR of 24% in the next five years) are predicted to drive a 35 percent.
  • CAGR in the Indian region (50 percent of revenues) and Affle forecasts organic growth of 25-30%. In FY21-23E, we estimate organic revenue to rise at a 35 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
  • In FY21-23E, we expect 58 percent revenue growth (organic and inorganic combined).

Mahindra & Mahindra: Implied upside of 32%

Mahindra & Mahindra: Implied upside of 32%

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is a conglomerate with interests in a variety of industries, including automobiles, information technology, financial services, logistics, hotels, and real estate.

According to the brokerage, for the corporation and the industry, demand for automobiles is increasing. South India has performed better in terms of tractor performance thus far, although the monsoon has already advanced successfully in both north and east India. Due to the high base effect, the business maintained to forecast low to mid-single-digit tractor industry growth in FY22E.

Current Market Price Rs 758
Target Price Rs 1000
Potential upside 32%

Why buy the shares of Mahindra & Mahindra?

Why buy the shares of Mahindra & Mahindra?

“The stock price performance has been largely flattish over the past five years, in step with the wider Nifty Auto index. We retain BUY rating on pivot towards capital efficiency, EV proactiveness Target Price and Valuation: We retain SOTP-based target of Rs 1,000 for M&M (10x EV/EBITDA to standalone business; 35% holding company discount to investments),” the brokerage has said.

Key triggers for future price performance:

  • Going forward, leadership in the tractor area, following Covid’s return in the automotive domain, and ongoing LCV momentum will boost topline development.
  • In FY21-23E, we plan to grow total volume and sales by 12.7 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively.
  • New launches and differentiated products will help UV gain market share. Operating leverage benefits will result in healthy margins (13.5 percent in FY23E).
  • Focus on prudent capital allocation (18 percent RoE vision) and EV thrust (six fully electric PV and LCV launches by 2026) will remain structural positives.

Bank of Baroda: Implied upside of 20%

Bank of Baroda: Implied upside of 20%

With a global loan book of Rs 7.1 lakh crore, Bank of Baroda is a top PSU bank with stronger operating metrics than other PSBs. The structural positives (electric PV, LCV debuts by 2026) continue to exist.

According to the brokerage, Bank of Baroda has reported decent results considering the current environment. We believe with unlocking of the economy, overall operational parameters will improve.

Current Market Price Rs 83
Target Price Rs 100
Potential upside 20%

Why buy the shares of Bank of Baroda?

Why buy the shares of Bank of Baroda?

“Bank of Baroda has seen its stock price rising by more than 70% in the past year. We believe improving business outlook along with containment of slippages should help overall performance to improve. We retain our BUY rating on the stock. Target Price and Valuation: We value the bank at ~0.75x FY23E ABV and maintain our target price of Rs 100 per share,” the brokerage has said.

Key triggers for future price-performance:

  • Shedding of low yield exposure & focus on retail segment to aid margins
  • Decent asset quality amid tough situation; net slippages at ~2% in FY22E
  • Shift to new tax regime to aid profitability
  • Comfortable capital position, CRAR at 15.4%, to keep dilution risk away.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Investing in stocks poses a risk of financial losses. Investors must therefore exercise due caution. Greynium Information Technologies, the author, and the brokerage houses are not liable for any losses caused as a result of decisions based on the article. Investors should take care because the markets are near record highs.



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CoinShares data, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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NEW YORK: Bitcoin investment products and funds registered outflows for a fifth consecutive week, as investor sentiment remained cautious in the midst of increased global regulatory scrutiny, data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed on Monday.

Outflows from the world’s most popular cryptocurrency totaled $33 million in the week ended Aug. 6, compared with $19.7 million the previous week. But so far this year, bitcoin inflows remained a robust $4.2 billion.

Total crypto outflows, meanwhile, added up to nearly $26 million, although CoinShares noted that the magnitude of outflows was much less than in May and June.

Sluggishness in the crypto market was due in part to global regulatory crackdown, analysts say.

“There’s all this focus on crypto because with all the new financial products and innovative solutions, governments, which are here to protect investors, are going to wonder whether this is a good idea and so, they’re going to look more into these,” said Matthijs de Vries, chief technology officer at infrastructure provider AllianceBlock.

Bitcoin on Monday hit an 11-week high above $46,000 . Since mid-July, bitcoin has gained 46% against the dollar.

Data also showed that ether, the token used in the Ethereum blockchain, also saw outflows of $2.8 million, from a nearly $9-million outflow the previous week.

Last Thursday, Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain network, went through a major software upgrade, which is expected to stabilize transaction fees and reduce supply of the ether token.

Ether’s supply is being reduced through “burning,” in which tokens are sent to specialized addresses that have unobtainable private keys. Without access to a private key, no one can use the tokens, putting them outside the circulating supply.

About $59.2 million worth of ether tokens have been “burned” since Thursday’s software upgrade, according to ultrasound.money, a website that tracks ether burning and supply.

Investors expect ether to accelerate gains as the Ethereum network burns more of its tokens. Ether was last up 4.9% at $3,161.93.



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Oyo aims for India IPO in 2021, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Oyo Hotels and Homes will soon join the list of startups launching an initial public offering (IPO) in the country.

Internally, the hospitality company has set a timeline of September for filing its IPO prospectus and wants to be a public company before the calendar year ends, people aware of the development said.

Oyo has initiated talks with multiple bankers including JP Morgan, Citi and Kotak Mahindra Capital to manage its public issue, they said.

“Work has begun and some bankers have been finalised,” a person aware of the matter told ET. “They are aiming to file the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) by September.”

Another person said, “Directionally, they are moving towards an IPO but many details are yet to be finalised, including the offer size.”

A spokesperson of Oyo declined to comment.

Oyo is seeing a revival in business in markets such as India and Europe as the number of Covid-19 cases have been falling and vaccination rate improving. Oyo told ET last month that it was seeing stronger recovery in Europe on the back of higher vaccination rates and that India would also reflect the same once more people are vaccinated, at least once.

Currently, 43% of Oyo’s revenue comes from India and Southeast Asia while 28% comes from Europe and the rest from other global markets. The company was forced to cut down its operations in markets like the US and China amid the virus outbreak. In India, it fired a chunk of its workforce as Covid-19 hit its business hard.

Its IPO plans come at a time when the Indian public market seems to be bullish on startup IPOs following Zomato’s public offer.

Paytm, PolicyBazaar, Nykaa, Mobikwik and CarTrade are in various stages of going public in India after having filed their DRHP over the last few months.

ET had last month reported that Oyo had secured a $660-million debt financing from global institutional investors to service its existing loans. Wall Street investors like Fidelity, Citadel Capital Management and Varde Partners have subscribed to Oyo’s TLB, also referred to as Term B Loan.

The hotel aggregator is also in talks with Microsoft for financing.



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IPO-bound Paytm seeks shareholders’ nod to double ESOP pool, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Fintech startup Paytm is planning to more than double its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) pool, as per a letter sent to its shareholders for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) scheduled for September 2, ahead of its much-anticipated IPO.

The Noida-based firm has proposed to its shareholders an increase in the existing ESOP pool to 61,094,280 equity options at a face value of Re 1 each from the current 24,094,280 equity options. The fintech company has also sought approval of founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s revised employment agreement as the managing director and chief executive of the company.

Additionally, the company is formalising three appointments to the board of directors. These are Neeraj Arora, former chief business officer of WhatsApp and Ashit Ranjit Lilani, managing partner of Saama Capital, as non-executive independent directors; and Douglas Feagin, senior vice president, Ant Group, as a director.

The company has also put forth revised annual remuneration agreements for independent directors on the board for shareholders’ consideration. These include those of Mark Schwartz and Pallavi Shardul Shroff for Rs 1.85 crore and Ashit Ranjit Lilani and Neeraj Arora for Rs 1.48 crore.

ET has reviewed a copy of the letter.

In its previous EGM on July 12, the firm had passed several resolutions, including an IPO raise, and one declassifying Sharma as the promoter to list as a professionally managed company. Listing as a professionally run business could help smoothen Paytm’s IPO process as it reduces the compliance burden from investors and individuals that are considered promoters.

Also Read: Paytm founder to have protective rights after listing

Paytm’s ESOP expansion comes at a time when several leading tech and internet startups have offered lucrative buyback windows to help employees vest their options. In 2021, startups such as Zerodha, Razorpay, Cred, Acko, Udaan have given their employees windows to cash their stock options as valuations of India’s internet startups continue to rise rapidly.

ESOPs are an employee benefit plan that gives the firm’s employees ownership in the company in the first of stock options. Among growth-stage startups, ESOP plans are seen as an effective way to attract, retain and reward workers in a highly competitive talent market.

Paytm in July had filed a draft red herring prospectus with the markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to raise Rs 16,600 crore ($2.2 billion) through a public issue in what will be one of the biggest Indian IPOs in at least a decade.

Also Read: Paytm and the art of going public

The stock offering will comprise a fresh issue worth Rs 8,300 crore ($1.1 billion) and a secondary issue or an offer for sale (OFS) of the same size, Paytm has told Sebi. The company may also consider a pre-IPO funding round of up to Rs 2,000 crore. If that happens the size of the fresh issue will be adjusted accordingly, the DRHP says.



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Peru central bank chief Velarde to stay for another term -source, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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LIMA – Peruvian central bank President Julio Velarde has agreed to stay on for an extra term, a source familiar with his decision said on Monday, a move poised to calm markets rattled by the election of the country’s new left-wing president.

“Julio Velarde has agreed to continue in the role and is following the conversations to define the members of the bank’s board,” said the source, who declined to be identified because the decision has not yet been made public.

A central bank representative was not immediately available for comment.

Velarde, a prestigious central banker, has been in the role since 2006 and helped cement Peru’s economy as one of the most stable in Latin America. Peru’s central bank is independent from the government, with the rest of the bank’s board split between nominees proposed by the executive and legislative branches.

Newly inaugurated President Pedro Castillo asked Velarde to stay in the role. Velarde initially said he planned to retire later this year.

Peruvian markets have been battered on Castillo‘s election, with the local sol currency hitting a record low against the dollar on Monday.

Castillo belongs to a Marxist-Leninist party, has named several hardliners to his Cabinet and is pushing to redraft the country’s constitution.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Leslie Adler)



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Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC gets Sebi’s go ahead to float IPO, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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New Delhi: Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC has received capital markets regulator Sebi‘s approval to raise funds through an initial share sale. The initial public offer (IPO) is entirely an offer for sale, wherein two promoters — Aditya Birla Capital and Sun Life (India) AMC Investments — will divest their stake in the asset management firm, according to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).

The IPO of up to 3.88 crore equity shares comprises an offer for sale of up to 28.51 lakh equity shares by Aditya Birla Capital and up to 3.6 crore equity shares by Sun Life AMC.

The asset management company, which had filed preliminary IPO papers with Sebi in April, obtained the final “observation” letter from the regulator on August 5, an update with the markets watchdog showed on Monday.

In market parlance, observation of Sebi is a kind of its go-ahead to float the public issue.

Based on the average industry price earning ratio, the IPO is expected to fetch Rs 1,500-2,000 crore, merchant banking sources said.

The proposed sale of equity shares by Aditya Birla Capital and Sun Life India in the IPO will together constitute up to 13.50 per cent of the paid-up share capital of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC.

Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd, the investment manager of Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial Inc of Canada.

Asset management firms like Nippon Life India Asset Management, HDFC AMC and UTI AMC are already listed on the stock exchanges.

Aditya Birla Sunlife MF, the fourth largest fund house, had average assets under management of Rs 2.7 lakh crore as of March quarter.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, BofA Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, Axis Capital, HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities, IIFL Securities, JM Financial, Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors, SBI Capital Markets and YES Securities (India) Limited are the merchant bankers to the issue.

Earlier in June, Sebi had kept the proposed initial share-sale of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC in “abeyance”.

However, the regulator had not disclosed the reason for the same.



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Key accused in co-op bank fraud case nabbed, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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THRISSUR: The crime branch team probing the fraud at Karuvannur Cooperative Bank on Monday arrested the first accused in the case.

T R Sunilkumar, former secretary of the bank and son of Thaivalappil Ramakrishnan of Thaliyakkonm near Irinjalakuda, was taken into custody at 4:40pm from Parappur Road area near Amala Hospital in Thrissur, said sources in the probe team. There are reports that he had surrendered before the police, but the probe team insisted that they had taken him into custody.

The absconding Sunilkumar was the secretary of the bank for the last 21 years, and he was hiding at different places after the case was registered. He will be produced before the court on Tuesday, sources said.

A manhunt is on in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for remaining five accused, sources added.

Three of the accused have filed anticipatory bail applications at the principal district and sessions court here. The accused M Biju Kareem, who was the manager and C K Jilse, a bank accountant, and Reji Anilkumar, an accountant at the supermarket being run by the bank, filed the bail application soon after the fraud was exposed last month. The bail application had come up for hearing on July 21 and the prosecution was asked to file their responses, which was filed on August 6. The petitions have now been reserved for orders on Tuesday.

The probe team was facing criticisms from Congress and BJP for the delay in the arrest of the accused in the fraud. Congress and BJP leaders were alleging that the probe team was trying to protect the fraudsters because of their links with CPM.

However, the probe team expressed confidence that the remaining five will also be nabbed soon. They denied reports that one of the accused had gone abroad.



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HDFC Bank receives Rs 30,000 crore prepayments amid signs of economic recovery and deliveraging, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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In clear signs of a robust economic recovery and sustained deleveraging by top-rated Indian corporates, HDFC Bank received about Rs 30,000 crore in prepayments through the June quarter, primarily from companies in the commodities and infrastructure sectors, two people familiar with the development told ET.

“HDFC Bank has not seen such a high level of prepayment in the recent past,” said one of the persons cited above. “Other banks also obtained prepayments, but the scale is not that high because of lower business volumes.”

HDFC Bank, India’s most valuable lender, did not reply to ET’s queries on the subject. Industry sources didn’t reveal the names of individual corporate borrowers prepaying their loans to HDFC Bank.

In the April-June quarter, AAA or AA-rated companies sought to deleverage as they recorded solid cash balances, banking sources said. Cash flows were robust at commodity companies because of record iron ore or aluminium prices, boosting net profits. Infrastructure companies, too, reported fatter bottom-lines due to the government’s extensive highway-building programme.

HDFC Bank now expects renewed credit demand from these companies in a quarter or two, with the pace of economic recovery quickening and fueling the need for more funds.

The bank expanded its corporate loans in excess of 10% in the April-June quarter to about Rs 3.15 lakh crore. Wholesale banking advances largely include working capital loans. About four years ago, the book size was about Rs 1 lakh crore at the traditionally retail-focused HDFC Bank.

“Prepayments came from borrowers with more than two years of residual loans outstanding,” said a market source.

If a borrowing company runs a loan for two years and gives a prepayment notice of up to 30 days, the bank does not charge any penalty.

“Three months later, these companies will come forward with fresh credit demand,” said a senior banking executive, who advises companies on loan deals and works closely with HDFC Bank. “Demand is coming back as the second wave triggered only localised lockdowns.”

HDFC Bank is increasingly leaning toward companies, with the franchise built around individual consumption pushing credit to deleveraged corporates after Covid-induced job losses and wage cuts raised the risk perception of retail borrowers.

“Corporate loans will likely grow selectively,” Kaizad Bharucha, Executive Director, HDFC Bank, said in an interaction with ET two weeks ago. “The second wave has not destroyed demand for corporate loans but postponed it. With caseloads falling, companies will require money – both working capital and term loans.”



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