Viral Acharya cautions govt against deficit financing Aditya Puri sells HDFC Bank stake, gets `843 cr ‘Korean firm could make 200m vaccines by June’
Former central banker Viral Acharya warned against the RBI monetising the government's budget deficit, citing risks to inflation and external sector stability.
"Adopting this approach is also deeply flawed," according to Acharya's soon-to-be-released book:
Viral Acharya
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
Aditya Puri
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. —PTI
SK Bioscience, the South Korean pharmaceutical company backed by Bill Gates, may be capable of producing 200 million coronavirus vaccine kits by next June, the Microsoft Corp. cofounder said in a letter to South Korean president Moon Jae-in.
Gates is seeking to cooperate closely with South Korea, the presidential office in Seoul said on Sunday, citing the July 20 letter. The US billionaire and Moon spoke by phone in April about teaming up to fight the virus and develop a vaccine, the Blue House said in a text message.
Bill Gates
The world is in a race to develop a vaccine that could protect masses against a virus that has wreaked havoc on the global economy. Gates has said investment in factories across the world can ensure regions beyond the US won't be left behind in the rush for Covid-19 vaccines.
— Bloomberg