Housing Development Finance Corporation

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) was an Indian private-sector mortgage lender based in Mumbai. It was widely recognised as the largest housing finance company in India. In addition to its core mortgage lending operations, HDFC had diversified interests through its associate and subsidiary companies, including banking, life and general insurance, asset management, venture capital, and deposit services.

History

HDFC was founded in 1977 under the leadership of Hasmukhbhai Parekh, with financial support from India's business community, as India's first specialized mortgage company and the flagship entity of the HDFC Group. Hasmukhbhai Parekh played a key role in establishing the foundation of the company which started with the main aim of solving the housing shortage in India and steadily grew thereafter. The type of loans offered by company included loans for purchase and construction of a residential units, purchase of land, home improvement loans, home extension loans, non-residential premise loans for professionals and loan against property and repayment options include step-up repayment facility and flexible loan instalment plan.

General insurance

The company offered general insurance products such as:

Motor, health, travel, home and personal accident in the retail segment which accounts for 47% of its total business and
Property, marine, aviation and liability insurance in the corporate segment

Operations

HDFC's distribution network spanned 396 outlets (including 109 offices of HDFC's distribution company HDFC Sales Private Limited) which catered to approx. 2,400 towns and cities in India. To cater to Non-Resident Indians, HDFC had offices in London, Singapore and Dubai and service associates in Middle Eastern countries. The largest investor amongst them was Vanguard International Growth Fund.

Major subsidiaries and associates

HDFC's key associate and subsidiary companies included HDFC Bank, HDFC Life Insurance Company, HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, HDFC Asset Management Company, and HDFC Capital Advisors.

HDFC Bank

HDFC held 26.14% of shares in HDFC Bank. HDFC Bank sources home loans for HDFC for a fee. The key business areas of HDFC Bank were wholesale and retail banking and treasury operations. As of April 2023, its market capitalisation was , making it India's third largest publicly traded company.

HDFC Life Insurance Company

HDFC held approx. 48.7% of shares in HDFC Life and was the sole promoter of the company, as of May 2023. In September 2013, it was ranked third in terms of market share of private life insurance companies in India. HDFC held a 52.6% stake and was the sole promoter of the company as of June 2023. HDFC AMC managed 68 schemes comprising debt, equity, exchange-traded fund and fund of fund schemes. In 2022, two wholly owned subsidiaries of HDFC, viz. HDFC Property Ventures and HDFC Venture Capital, were merged into HDFC Capital Advisors.

Former subsidiaries and associates

HDFC Credila Financial Services

HDFC Credila was a non-banking finance company and the first Indian lender to exclusively focus on education loans. The company lended to under-graduate and post-graduate students studying in India or abroad. HDFC held about 90% shares in this company.

HDFC RED

Launched in 2010, HDFC held a 100% stake in HDFC RED, a real estate online listings platform operating under HDFC Developers Ltd. The company focuses on real estate, avoiding resale and rental services.

GRUH Finance

HDFC held approx. 59% in GRUH, a housing finance company offering loans to individuals for purchase, construction and renovation of dwelling units. GRUH also offers loans to the self-employed segment where formal income proofs are not available. and the National Stock Exchange of India where it is a constituent of the S&P CNX Nifty.

Shareholding: On 30 September 2013, 73.09% of the equity shares of the company were owned by the Foreign Institutional Investors (FII). Around 185,000 individual public shareholders own approx. 9.25% of its shares. The remaining 17.66% shares are owned by others.

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! Shareholders (as of 30-September-2013)!! Shareholding

Awards and recognition

In 2013, a survey on "India's Best Boards" listed HDFC's Board of Directors among the 5 best boards in India.
In May 2013, Forbes listed it at No. 561 in the Global 2000 list of largest companies.
In 2012, HDFC Limited was recognised as one of India's 'Best Companies to work for' in a joint study conducted by The Economic Times and 'The Great Place to Work Institute'.