HDFC to consider raising funds at board meet on 27 March

Housing Development Finance Corp, India's largest mortgage lender, on Friday said it would consider fundraising on 27 March by the issuance of non-convertible debentures of up to ₹57,000 crore on a private placement basis.

In a stock exchange filing, HDFC Corp wrote, "We wish to inform you that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Corporation is scheduled to be held on Monday, March 27, 2023 inter alia to consider issuance of unsecured redeemable nonconvertible debentures, in various tranches, under a Shelf Placement Memorandum, aggregating ₹57,000 crore on a private placement basis, in accordance with the approval granted by the shareholders of the Corporation at the 45th Annual General Meeting held on June 30, 2022".

Last month, HDFC raised ₹25,000 crore through a 10-year non-convertible debenture issue.

HDFC, which is soon to be merged with Hdfc Bank, sold 10-year bonds at a coupon of 7.97%.

"Today, as soon as the bids opened, there was a wide participation from several high-quality investors across insurance companies, pension funds, provident funds, banks, and mutual funds," the mortgage firm said in February.

The issue was oversubscribed and received 92 bids amounting to ₹27,863 crore of which the company retained 55 investor bids totalling ₹25,000 crore, it said.

HDFC was India’s top seller of rupee bonds last year, according to Bloomberg news agency.

Most of the funds would help HDFC meet capital requirements after the merger, while some of it may also be used to buy government bonds to meet its statutory liquidity ratio needs to post the merger, merchant bankers said.

The NBFC has now raised an aggregate of ₹784.14 billion through bond issuance in this financial year, the highest by any company.