Deepak Parekh bids adieu: Why the man who built HDFC never owned more than 1% of it

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, who has announced his retirement, is one of those who are penny wise — as well as pound wise. When Parekh was doing his articleship in London after studying accountancy, he planned to celebrate his 21st birthday with three friends. He prepared the budget for the party: two shillings and six pence for each of the three guests. Shilling was a British coin one-twentieth of a pound which was discontinued in 1971. A shilling had 12 pence. In today's rupee terms, it translates to nearly 12.5 rupees for each. He told them that they could have whatever they wanted within that budget. But when drinks started flowing, Parekh's meticulous budget all went awry. He ended up with a 'grand' bill of 13 shillings. His friends had to shell out the difference, and, till date, they hold him to ransom for that party. That value of frugality and that strict measure of money stayed forever with Parekh. Unlike his birthday party budget, his home mortgage business, which he joined nearly a decade later, never went awry. At 78, when he is retiring from HDFC, it is merging with its arm HDFC Bank, turning into a Rs 1,600 crore financial behemoth, the second biggest company by market cap in India after Reliance Industries and the fourth biggest bank in the world.

Deepak Parekh quits HDFC, says 'it's time to hang my boots'

Parekh counted the pennies as well as pounds of his companies wisely. He stayed away from big-ticket glamorous projects that spawned bad debt and made it a point to lend money on cash flow instead of asset value.

Many people who think Parekh must have a big stake in the financial business he built are surprised when they know he has less than 1% stake in