After its planned merger with the Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP), Housing Development Finance Corporation

Banking sector Major HDFC bank is in talks with Centurion Bank of Punjab.  The news of the possible merger was first reported by Economic Times on 13, Feb, 2008.  If the deal is finalised, HDFC bank will become the third biggest bank with a wide network all across the country.

Centurion Bank of Punjab informed the stock exchange that a meeting of the board of directors of the bank will be held on February 23, 2008 to consider a possible merger with HDFC Bank Ltd.

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has sold 8,03,87,686 equity shares of Rs 10/- each of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company (SLIC) to Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) Ltd, representing 7.15% of the total issued and paid-up equity for Rs. 200 crore at a pre agreed price.

With this, Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings) will go up to 26%, the maximum permissible by foreign investors under Indian law.

On the other hand, after the current sale, HDFC’s stake will come down from 81% to 74 %.

Mumbai: The Housing Lender HDFC today announced closure of its first sponsored HDFC International Real Estate Fund (HIREF) at $800 million, which would be invested in FDI-compliant Indian real estate plans.

According to a company release, the fund makes HDFC the biggest player in the realty private equity space in India.

One of the prime international realty pools, the nine-year close-ended fund, which was open only to foreign investors had been privately placed and subscribed by 28 investors.

HDFC Bank diluted 0.2% to Rs 1197.15 on pricing its 6.6-million American Depository Receipts at $92.10 each.

The scrip hit a high of Rs 1,218 and a low of Rs 1,192.30 during the day. On 28 May 2007, the scrip touched a 52-week high of Rs 1,274 and a 52-week low of Rs 693.10 on 19 July 2006.

The HDFC Bank stock had developed 10.27% within the one month period to 17 July 2007 as against Sensex’s return of 8.59%. The scrip had outperformed the market over the past quarter, going down 22.41% as compared to the Sensex’s increase of 11.83%.