HDFC Bank is in the eye of the storm after Atanu Chakraborty’s sudden resignation last evening as the part chairman and Independent Director after serving the board since 2021 has led to several debate across the industry.
Apart from the sharp stock reaction seen intra-day, social network platforms, especially X is flooded with varied point of view on the topic and many industry experts and market veterans have raised concerns about the timing of the resignation.
Samir Arora questions Chakraborty’s sudden exit from HDFC Bank
Helios Capital founder Samir Arora pointed out that if Chakraborty raised concerns about the timing of the resignation.
“If you care about your company, if you care about the time you spent there, if you care about other stakeholders and shareholders- you do not resign with immediate effect in the middle of a week,” Arora said in his post on X.
Sandip Sabharwal calls resignation letter ‘cryptic’
Fund manager and industry veteran Sandip Sabharwal of Asksandipsabharwal.com joined the conversation and replied to him, saying that he believes that “the main value destruction (of HDFC Bank )started with the merger which I had pointed out in 2022 itself. It was not in the interest of minority shareholders.”
HDFC Bank completed a merger with Housing Development Finance Corporation on July 1, 2023. The deal was valued at around $40 billion.
In another post of X, Sabharwal added that, “Atanu Chakraborty should have taken a graceful exit and not put out a cryptic resignation letter implying wrongdoing at HDFC Bank despite clear indications that it was more a personality conflict.”
“This is a great disservice to minority shareholders who actually hold a majority of HDFC Bank shares.”
Speaking on the overall performance of HDFC stock Sabharwal said, “However with 5 years of negative returns that’s more than factored in.”
However, speaking on a conference call today, Keki Mistry who has taken charge as Interim Chairman of HDFC Bank for next three month assured the investors that the resignation has no link to governance or operational issues at the bank and it won’t affect the bank’s operational performance.
HDFC Bank share price
The share price of HDFC Bank has declined 5.13% in the intra-day trade session today. The stock has hit its 52-week low in intra-day trade today. On YTD basis the stock has declined 19.28% and 8.28% in last one year.