Promoter entity abrdn exited HDFC Life Insurance on May 31 by selling its entire holding of 3.56 crore shares, or 1.66 percent stake, to various investors, at an average price of Rs 570.60 per share. The stake sale was worth Rs 2,036.7 crore.
A part of the stake was picked by foreign funds like Morgan Stanley Asia, WF Asian Smaller Companies Fund, BofA Securities, Societe Generale, Amazon Market Nuetral and BNP Paribas Arbitrage.
Societe Generale was the biggest buyer and picked 33 lakh shares. Norges Bank on account of Government Petroleum Fund also 27.5 lakh shares.
Among domestic institutions, SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Prudential MF, Nippon India MF and Aditya Birla Sun Life MF were the prominent names. ICICI Prudential MF picked about 25 lakh shares, ABSL MF took 23 lakh shares while SBI MF was the biggest buyer with over 1 crore shares, data showed.
On June 1, a day after the block deal, HDFC Life's stock opened marginally higher on the NSE at Rs 594, compared to the previous close of Rs 592.
A major overhang for the stock is now behind as abrdn has been paring its stake steadily from over 10 percent in June 2020.
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HDFC Life has gained 15 percent after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on April 21 allowed HDFC Bank or HDFC Limited to increase the shareholding in HDFC Life to more than 50 percent. HDFC Ltd, as of March 2023, held a 48.65 percent stake in HDFC Life.
For Q4, HDFC Life reported an almost flat net profit of Rs 359 crore, as against Rs 357 crore in the previous year, even though net premium income increased 36 percent to Rs 19,426 crore.
The insurer's embedded value stood at Rs 39,527 crore as on March 31, 2023, with an operating return on embedded value of 19.7 percent for FY23.
As the government has proposed to tax proceeds of insurance policies with premiums in excess of Rs 5 lakh, the company is now investing to grow lower-ticket policies to offset a slowdown in the higher ticket non-par business, as per analysts.
The consensus 12-month target on the stock is Rs 638, indicating a 7 percent upside from current level. According to technical analysts, the stock looks overbought on the daily charts with strong resistance at Rs 613.
"Investors should book profits at current levels and wait for a dip near support of Rs 526 to initiate fresh buy positions for better returns in the near term," said AR Ramachandran of Tips2Trade.
Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not those of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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