In every country’s stock market, the company that holds the pole position is very critical for the overall market stability. India has seen this pole position fluctuate among various names. There was a time when FMCG majors help that place. Then, Reliance became the most valued company. TCS and Infosys have had their moment under the sun. But, more often, professionally owned, widely held firms without an actual promoter were never contenders for that slot.
While HDFC and L&T were strong contenders at different times, they never really made it to the position of market leadership. Today, HDFC Bank is clearly poised to take market leadership post-merger with HDFC limited. From the weak public perception that prevailed on its future post the retirement of Aditya Puri, the Bank has weathered many battles and crossed multiple hurdles. It has pursued a one-of-a-kind merger with its parent HDFC to rewrite its future. The testing times it experienced during its run-in with RBI on credit cards, the doubts on its tech readiness for the future, and the stability doubts cast on its top leadership have been put behind. The Bank is now getting ready to grow a bigger pie, take its rightful place in the Country’s revival story, and drive its future growth decisively forward. While it will need to aggressively create a more tech-centric business model for the future, investment capability is a huge positive.
Inorganic opportunities are aplenty in the #fintech space, and valuations are coming into the zone of comfort. The Bank is getting itself positioned to take a bigger leap forward post-completion of the HDFC-HDFC Bank merger. The uncertainties on the merger are now being put behind and we are going to see a different perspective emerge closer to the merger date. The bigger story is the making of India’s most valued company, a position that will need to be held onto for a long time. This is going to be a challenge for the bank’s rather publicity-shy management. But the fact that an elephant is shy is not going to take away its majesty.
The onward March of the great Indian elephant has just begun. India’s most valued company is now in the advanced stages of making.
