China’s PBoC keeps India stock portfolio
NEW DELHI : The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) continues to own shares worth at least ₹25,000 crore across 20 major Indian companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd, Infosys Ltd, Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Vedanta Ltd, despite escalating geopolitical tensions between the two nations over the past three years, company filings showed. Infosys and ICICI Bank are PBoC’s biggest portfolio holdings in India. The Chinese central bank owns 0.8% of Infosys, worth ₹4,678 crore, and 0.7% of ICICI Bank, worth ₹4,583 crore at current prices.
It also owns a 0.24% stake in TCS, valued at approximately ₹3,157 crore, and a 0.4% stake in Bajaj Finance, worth ₹1,928 crore. Other portfolio companies include Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Asian Paints Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. A person who has dealt with PBoC in the past said the Chinese central bank has been cautious about keeping its holdings below the 1% threshold in companies that require public disclosure, aiming to prevent the kind of backlash it faced in 2020 after it became known that its investments exceeded 1% in Housing Development Finance Corp., the then parent of India’s largest private lender, HDFC Bank Ltd.
The acquisition sparked concerns in New Delhi that Chinese investors were looking to snare stakes in Indian firms following a sharp fall in stock prices in March and April of that year due to the pandemic. Shortly after the backlash, PBoC pared its stake in Housing Development Finance Corp. below 1%.
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