MUMBAI: People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Chinese central bank that has owned a little extra 1% in mortgage finance leader HDFC at the mark of March-end, and has recently sold some shares from their holding during the months of April-June quarter. This has certainly resulted in their stake in the owned blue-chip company coming down below to the provided mandatory disclosure limit of 1%.
According to markets regulator SEBI, all the listed companies are provided to disclose the names of the entities that hold at least 1% equity among them. HDFC’s latest shareholding disclosure to the stock markets, which has the details of all the entities holding 1% or more stake in it, and don’t list PBoC.
HDFC’s shareholding pattern for the month of January-March (Q4FY20) quarter provided that PBoC was holding nearly about 1.75 crores out of the total 173.2 crore shares being issued. The latest shareholding pattern decided for the month of April-June quarter (Q1FY21) provided that, during these last three months, the home finance company’s total outstanding shares increased by around 25.6 lakh shares to 173.5 crore shares in total.
So, even if PBoC occupied the same 1.75 crore shares, it's holding in HDFC would be still above 1%. Calculations provided that PBoC must have sold at least about 2 lakh HDFC shares to acquire its holding in the mortgage finance major to below the 1% threshold limit provided.
Since the month of July 2018, when PBoC have received an RBI nod to be registered as a foreign portfolio investor (FPI) in the country India, the Chinese central bank has been continuously building its portfolio of stocks in the select blue-chips. In addition to HDFC, the bank also has small stakes in Ambuja Cement and Piramal Enterprises, as being reported on July 7.
The value of its stake in these three companies is worth about Rs 3,500 crore. Market players said that PBoC is believed to be holding small stakes in a few other Indian companies too, but the same has not been disclosed because those are below the 1% disclosure threshold limit.
