Aditya Puri sells HDFC Bank stake, gets `843 cr

Mumbai, July 26: HDFC Bank chief executive and managing director Aditya Puri has sold more than 74 lakh shares of the private lender to raise Rs 842.87 crore, according to regulatory filings.

The share sale, which was executed between July

21 and 23, brought down Puri's holding in the most valued Indian lender to just 0.01 per cent from the earlier 0.14 per cent.

The sale comes months ahead of Puri's retirement from the bank, which under him has become the largest by assets among private banks and the second-largest in India over 25 years.

He sold 74.20 lakh of the

77.96 lakh shares in the bank and Puri's remaining holding of the bank shares is now 3.76 lakh shares valued at over Rs 42 crore as of the last close.

A bank spokesperson explained that the shares were allotted to Puri over a period of time at different price points and said they were not given at par with the face value of the share.

The net value realised by Puri is not as stated. The acquisition cost of shares and the tax payable on the transaction has to be accounted for, he added.

Puri was the highest-paid Indian banker in FY20 with a 20 per cent growth in gross earnings at Rs

18.92 crore. He had also earned an additional Rs

161.56 crore in FY20 and Rs

42.20 crore in FY19 by exercising his stock options.

HDFC Bank shares have gained 46 per cent from the low of Rs 765 in March. The scrip closed at 1,118.80 on the BSE on Friday.

Puri was granted 6.82 lakh shares under the Employee Stock Ownership Plan in FY20 and had also sold Rs 200- crore worth shares in the bank's subsidiary HDB Financial Services in FY2020.