From listing to Rs 7 lakh crore m-cap, 5 HDFC Bank milestones on Aditya Puri's watch

Aditya Puri, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Bank, retired on October 26. Puri, who led the Mumbai headquartered bank for 25 years, passed the baton on to Sashidhar Jagdishan, the Additional Director and Head of Finance, HR, with the private lender.

Puri took over as the Managing Director in September 1994 and his tenure at HDFC Bank has been illustrious.

Puri was instrumental in building the bank into India's largest private lender. Under his leadership, HDFC Bank held on its own through various crises and intense competition from rivals. The bank has been consistently delivering on growth and rewarded investors.

HDFC Bank was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange on May 19, 1995 and since then the bank's assets have grown from Rs 3,394 crore to over Rs 16 lakh crore. Total deposits grew from Rs 642 crore in March 1995 to Rs 12.29 lakh crore in September 2020 and advances swelled from Rs 98 crore to Rs 10.38 lakh crore.

Harsh Goenka, chairman of RPG Enterprises, wrote on Twitter, "A man who never wore a watch, carries no money in his pocket, does not possess a mobile has single-handedly created perhaps the finest bank in the planet."

"No controversies, hardly any NPAs, digitally ahead, Aditya Puri leaves behind a fantastic legacy," he tweeted.

During Puri's tenure, HDFC Bank crossed the market capitalisation of Rs 7 lakh crore and became the country's largest bank in terms of valuation. In the last 25 years, the stock has given a return of over 30,000 percent- jumping from Rs 3 levels in 1995 to Rs 1,200 in 2020.

Also read: Why HDFC Bank’s investors need to look beyond the Aditya Puri factor

HDFC Bank blazed a trail during Puri's tenure, here are Top 5 milestones:

The stock's journey
On October 16, 2006, the stock hit the Rs 100-mark for the first time, data available with Ace Equity showed. It took another nine years to get to the Rs 500-mark, on January 16, 2015.

Thereafter, it took only three years for the stock to hit the Rs 1,000-mark. On January 31, 2018, the stock hit the Rs 1,000-mark for the first time.

Also read: HDFC Bank gave 303-fold return during Puri's tenure, will the good run continue under Jagdishan?

Market cap
As per Ace Equity data, on May 29, 1995, HDFC Bank's market capitalisation was Rs 431.75 crore on BSE. On March 1, 1997, it touched Rs 1,055 crore.

On July 6, 2005, the m-cap stood at Rs 20,130 crore. Two years later, on September 27, 2007, it rose to Rs 50,660.26 crore.

On August 18, 2010, the m-cap touched Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time. After eight years, on January 18, 2018, the bank hit the Rs 5-lakh-crore-mark and on November 21, 2019, it jumped to Rs 7 lakh crore.

As of October 26 close, the m-cap of HDFC Bank on BSE was Rs 6.68 lakh crore.

Stock-split
As per the data available with Moneycontrol, HDFC Bank has split the face value of its shares twice—in 2011 and in 2019.

HDFC Bank last split the face value of its shares from Rs 2 to Rs 1 in 2019. The share has been quoting on an ex-split basis from September 19, 2019.

A stock split means the division of a company's shares into multiple new shares. A company may decide to split its shares to boost liquidity and to make it affordable for investors who are not able to buy it due to high prices. After the stock split, the number of outstanding shares increases, the market capitalisation of the stock remains the same as pre-split. While the number of shares increases, prices per share decreases.

Outperformed Sensex in return CAGR
As per Ace equity data and adjusting the inception value of HDFC Bank's stock at Rs 4, during Puri's 25-year period, the stock's return CAGR is 26 percent against the 11 percent CAGR of Sensex.

Latest shareholding pattern
As per the BSE filing on October 9, the bank's promoter and promoter group held a 26.02 percent stake in HDFC Bank while public shareholding was at 73.98 percent at the end of the September quarter of FY21.

Among the public shareholders, mutual funds held a 13.95 percent stake while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) held a 37.43 percent stake in the company.

LIC held a 3.79 percent stake in HDFC Bank at the end of the September quarter.

Puri's departure marks the end of an era for the bank. Analysts are of the view that Puri is handing over the charge to Sashidhar Jagdishan on a strong note. However, there are challenges too. The biggest one perhaps is ensuring that it does not lose the edge over competition in a tough market scenario.

Disclaimer: The above report is compiled from information available on public platforms. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.