Will HDFC Bank remain the Arnold Schwarzenegger of banks for next 10-20 years? Devina Mehra explains

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Devina Mehra, Chairperson & MD, First Global, says “I doubt whether HDFC will be in a situation where it will never get its act together in technology as it is so critical. I do not know exactly what they are doing in the sense that I have not met the management of late or anything, but I am sure that would not be a permanent stumbling block.”I am looking at one of your first reports that you published on HDFC Bank.The buy report said that at one, he is good, at five he will be awesome; from the baby it was a teen with a six-pack ab. Devina what is your sense then at 29 years, what is this teen with a six-pack abs going to look like? Is the opportunity still as large for shareholders?Yes, it is not the teen with the six-pack abs, it is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the reigning world champion then.

I could not tell. At one it is a baby, at five it will be Arnold Schwarzenegger, the world champion. Even on a global scale, it is a huge bank; the fourth largest in the world in market cap.

That report was just one year out of IPO and is relatively well known and one of the reasons why I made that call at that time. Of course, there was this whole fundamental thing that PSU banks had a large market share and therefore there was a good case to be made that a well-run private bank will take away some share. HDFC itself was already a brand name even for the retail consumer and their deposits and debentures, etc, used to do well.

They were already a known name and that was another advantage. I always say that this call had a plus-plus factor because in banking, one ultimately banks on the people because it is a business where if the credits go wrong, there are always negative surprises. In this case, because a lot of the people