Ahead of retirement, Aditya Puri sells 95% of his stake in HDFC Bank

HDFC Bank had last year in November set-up a six-member committee to identify Puri’s successor. Image: Reuters

HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri has sold 95 per cent of his equity stake – 74.2 lakh shares — worth Rs 842.87 crore during July 21-23, according to stock exchange filings. Before this transaction, Puri had held 77.96 lakh shares or 0.14 per cent stake of the bank’s equity capital. He is now left with 0.01 per cent stake or 3.76 lakh shares. The share sale by Puri came around three months ahead of his retirement from the top job as managing director since 1994. HDFC Bank had last year in November set-up a six-member committee including Sanjiv Sachar, Sandeep Parekh, Keki Mistry, Shyamala Gopinath, Srikanth Nadhamuni and M.D. Ranganathan to identify his successor.

Puri was the highest-paid banker among the top bankers for FY2019-20. His salary and prerequisites increased 38 per cent to Rs 18.92 crore from the previous year.  The bank had last week reported its Q1 FY20 results with a 19.6 per cent increase in net profit from Rs 5,568.16 crore in Q1 FY19 to Rs 6,658.62 crore in Q1 FY20. Moreover, its net interest income increased 17.8 per cent to Rs 15,665.4 crore from Rs 13,294.3 crore for the year-ago period on the back of growth in advances of 20.9 per cent to Rs 10,03,299 crore and deposits of 24.6 per cent to Rs 11,89,387 crore. Its asset quality also improved slightly with gross NPAs standing at 1.36 per cent of gross advances as on June 30, 2020, in comparison to 1.40 per cent as on June 30, 2019. Net NPAs of the bank was 0.33 per cent of net advances as on June 30, 2020.

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The bank had added 2.5 lakh new customers during the lockdown through its Instant Account App launched in late April, PTI reported. While banks were allowed to operate, however, footfalls remained fewer that made digital channel opening new deposit accounts helpful. HDFC Bank had 5,326 branches and 14,996 ATMs/cash deposit and withdrawal machines (CDMs) in 2,825 cities as of June 30, 2020, up from 4,990 branches and 13,727 ATMs/CDMs in 2,764 cities and towns as of June 30, 2019.