HDFC stake sale: Carlyle raises $841 mn
Carlyle Group LP has raised $841 million in India's fourth-biggest equity deal this year by selling its remaining 3.7 percent stake in the country's top mortgage lender, Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd (HDFC), said a source with direct knowledge of the deal.
The sale marks the U.S. private equity firm's exit from HDFC after nearly doubling its original 2007 investment of $650 million with this latest sale and one in February that raised $270 million.
The HDFC share sale came after a slew of such transactions in the Indian market since the beginning of 2012 as investors took advantage of stock market gains to reduce their holdings or take profit out of their India portfolio companies.
India's benchmark stock market index is up nearly 23 percent so far this year.
The index dropped nearly 25 percent in 2011, making it one of the worst global performers and leaving few options for private equity firms to exit their portfolio companies through IPOs or block deals.
Carlyle sold 57 million HDFC shares at 761.42 rupees each, said the source, declining to be named as details of the deal have not yet been released. The sale price represents a discount of 3.5 percent to HDFC's Thursday close.
Buyers of the HDFC shares included a clutch of overseas and Indian institutional investors, the source said, declining to give details.
Officials from both Carlyle and HDFC declined to comment on the deal.
HDFC shares, which the market values at about $22 billion, were
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