Abrdn sells £262m stake in India’s HDFC Life

Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn announced it sold another chunk of its shareholding in HDFC Life Insurance Company in India.

It said its Abrdn (Mauritius Holdings) 2006 Limited (aMH06) subsidiary sold 43,000,000 shares in HDFC Life on the National Stock Exchange of India Limited and the Bombay Stock Exchange Limited for £262 million, net of taxes and expenses.

The Edinburgh firm has been selling down its stake in HDFC over the past three years.

“The proceeds will further strengthen the company’s capital resources supporting investment in the business and enabling the company to continue to return capital in excess of business needs,” said Abrdn.

The shares sold constituted 2.00% of the paid-up, issued equity share capital of HDFC Life and aMH06’s remaining shareholding in HDFC Life is now 1.66%, based on the paid-up, issued equity share capital.  

“Based on the current share price of Rs 590.15, the value of this remaining shareholding would be approximately Rs 21,065bn (£227m).”

On August 9, Abrdn published first-half results showing its assets under management and administration (AUMA) fell £34 billion to £508 billion in the first half of 2022 amid the global stock market rout.

Abrdn said the drop in assets reflected the lower markets and a final tranche withdrawal of assets by Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) — both of which were partly offset by inclusion of assets from recently-acquired Interactive Investor (ii).

Abrdn reported a loss before tax for the first half of £320 million “largely due to losses of £313m from the change in fair value of significant listed investments (HDFC Asset Management, HDFC Life and Phoenix) as a result of the fall in the share price of these companies in the period.”