Did ICICI Bank Try To Acquire HDFC? What Deepak Parekh Reveals
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'I remember you talking to me once...you said ICICI started HDFC. 'Why don't you come back home?' That was your offer,' Parekh said in interaction with Ex-ICICI CEO Chanda Kochhar.
ICICI Bank once tried to merge housing finance firm HDFC with itself before its reverse merger with its own banking arm, HDFC Bank former chairman Deepak Parekh has revealed.
In a YouTube video, Parekh, in an interaction with ICICI Bank former MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar, said, 'I remember you talking to me once…you said that ICICI started HDFC. 'Why don't you come back home?' That was your offer."
However, Parekh said he declined the offer, saying 'it won't be fair or proper with our name and the bank and all".
He also said the HDFC Bank-HDFC reverse merger, which was completed in July 2023, was primarily driven by regulatory pressure.
'The RBI supported us and they pushed us into it to some extent and they helped us…there were no concessions, no relief, no time, nothing but they helped us to go through the process and get the approval," Parekh said.
On the reverse merger, Parekh called it 'a sad day and a happy day". He added, 'It's good for the institution. It's good for the country to have large banks. Look at how large Chinese banks are. We have to be bigger, larger in India."
Describing the merger as good for the institution, he said, it is good for the country to have large banks.
Indian banks must grow through acquisitions to become stronger in future, he added.
HDFC Ltd, the parent entity of HDFC Bank, merged with its banking subsidiary to create the country's biggest private sector lender. The merger became effective from July 1, 2023. With the reverse merger, the 44-year-old institution HDFC Ltd faded into memory lane.
Interestingly, the creation of HDFC Ltd was financially supported by erstwhile ICICI Ltd, the parent entity of ICICI Bank.
The Reserve Bank of India had classified large NBFCs like HDFC, which then held assets exceeding Rs 5 lakh crore, as systemically important — well above the Rs 50,000-crore threshold.
(With Inputs from PTI)
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