The boards of mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and private lender HDFC Bank have approved July 1 as the effective date of merger, and July 13 as the record date.
The board has approved “July 1, 2023, to be the ‘effective date’ of the (amalgamation) scheme, on which date the certified order of the NCLT sanctioning the scheme will be filed by HDFC Investments, HDFC Holdings, the Corporation and HDFC Bank with the Registrar of Companies (RoC)”, a regulatory filing by HDFC stated.
July 13 has also been fixed as the record date for “continuation of warrants of the Corporation in the name of HDFC Bank”, it added.
The filing also noted that July 7 has been fixed as the record date for “transfer of commercial papers of the Corporation in the name of HDFC Bank”, and July 12 for “transfer of non-convertible debentures”.
Commenting on the boards’ final approval for the mega-merger, HDFC Bank MD and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan said, “This is a defining event in our journey and I’m confident that our combined strength will enable us to create a holistic ecosystem of financial services. We’re truly happy to welcome the talented team of HDFC Ltd into the HDFC Bank family.”
Notably, the twin entities had first announced the decision to merge on April 4, 2022. As per the plan, HDFC is to acquire a 41 percent stake in HDFC Bank through the amalgamation.
On March 10, in an exclusive interview, HDFC Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Keki Mistry said that the merger will lead to bigger growth opportunities for the combined entity.
“Gradually, the objective is to expand housing loans from more and more branches of the bank. The growth opportunity on housing loans will be bigger in HDFC Bank (the combined entity) than HDFC,” said Mistry.
Once the deal comes into force, HDFC Bank will be 100 percent owned by public share holders, and existing shareholders of HDFC will own 41 percent of the bank.