End of an impeccable innings, but has Deepak Parekh mistimed his exit?
₹7.24 lakh crore and deposits of ₹1.52 lakh crore – remarkable for a private-sector non-bank lender. That wasn’t all. Parekh was also one of the first to spot the opportunity when the government opened up the banking sector to private players, and spearheaded HDFC’s entry into it with the creation of HDFC Bank.
It is another story that in the three decades that followed, HDFC Bank far outstripped its parent, with a pre-merger loan book of ₹16.14 lakh crore and deposits worth a staggering ₹18.3 lakh crore. The numbers of the combined entity are even more impressive. With a market cap of ₹12.86 lakh crore, HDFC Bank is now the world’s fourth-most valuable bank by this measure.
With a combined loan book in excess of ₹23 lakh crore, it is now more than twice the size of its nearest Indian private-sector rival, ICICI Bank, and a respectable second to public-sector behemoth State Bank of India, which boasts a ₹32 lakh crore loan book. Parekh has not only steered the many diversifications of HDFC but also provided guidance and leadership to some of India’s leading corporates. He has been the non-independent, non-executive chairman of HDFC Asset Management (a subsidiary of HDFC which runs HDFC Mutual Fund); non-executive chairman of HDFC ERGO General Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, Glaxo India Ltd, Burroughs Wellcome (India) Ltd, IDFC Ltd and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd; and chairman of IDFC Private Equity Co Ltd.
That’s a glittering CV indeed, with the $40 billion HDFC-HDFC Bank merger as its crowning glory. There’s enough justification to call it a day, one should think. But history is littered with examples of failed mega mergers.
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