Citigroup sells stake in HDFC for $1.9 billion

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Citigroup Inc said it sold its stake in Housing Development Finance Corp for $1.9 billion, as the bank steps up efforts to strengthen its capital base.

Citi said on Friday it would likely record an after-tax gain of about $722 million from the sale of its 9.9 percent holding in India's biggest mortgage lender.

The share sale, the largest in India this year, follows the sale of stakes in other Indian financial firms by international investors including U.S. private equity firm Carlyle and Singapore state investor Temasek in recent weeks.

The sales have coincided with a sharp rise in the share prices of Indian financial companies, which would be among the main beneficiaries of expected interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India later in the year. The BSE Sensex has risen about 16 per cent so far this year.

The sale of the HDFC stake is 'ongoing capital planning efforts,' Citi said in a statement. The bank sold 145.3 million HDFC shares at Rs 657.56 each.

The price represents a discount of about 6 percent to HDFC's closing price on Thursday, when Citi launched the process to sell its HDFC stake. Sources had said the bank had invited bids of between Rs 630 and Rs 703.55 a share.

The shares were bought by a large number of global funds as well as some local financial institutions, sources with direct knowledge of the process said. Citi was the sole bookrunner, they said.

The deal puts Citi at the top of India's equity capital market league table, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The bank, which ranked No. 2 in the ECM table in 2011, was not among the top three in the table for 2012 before this transaction.

Citi, which had been the largest shareholder in HDFC, sold a 1.5 per cent stake in June last year in a deal the bank said would give it a pre-tax profit of $160 million.

Shares in HDFC, which the market values at $21 billion, fell as much as 6 percent in early trading on Friday.

The stock was down 4.6 per cent at 668.80 rupees at 0518 GMT. The main Mumbai market was down 0.7 per cent.