India's Dewan Housing Finance sinks on reports of deposit curbs

CARE Ratings

22/05/2019 05:42

BENGALURU, May 22 (Reuters) - Shares of India's Dewan
Housing Finance Corp Ltd  DWNH.NS  (DHFL) fell as much as 18% to
106.85 rupees on Wednesday, on media reports that the home loan
lender would halt early withdrawals from existing deposit
schemes and stop taking new ones altogether.
    DHFL has been under scrutiny since media outlet Cobrapost
alleged in January that it diverted loans from Indian state-run
lenders to shell companies, including those linked to its
controlling shareholders. Its stock has lost a quarter of its
value since then.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N20E27L
    A revision in credit ratings of their fixed deposit
programme prompted DHFL to take these measures, according to a
statement from the company to its depositors and financial
planners viewed https://www.bloombergquint.com/economy-finance/dhfl-stops-fresh-deposits-puts-premature-withdrawals-on-hold-temporarily?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=whatsapp_feed
 by BloombergQuint.
    On May 14, CARE Ratings placed https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachHis/5585b117-bf41-468b-b6de-83bdda07adfd.pdf
 some of the company's debt instruments, including
non-convertible debentures, or NCDs, worth 466.55 billion rupees
($6.70 billion) on credit watch with negative implications.
    The latest development comes months after Chief Executive
Harshil Mehta resigned amid financial mismanagement allegations
and DHFL redesignated Chief Financial officer Santosh Sharma to
another role.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21515Q
    DHFL did not immediately respond for a Reuters request for
comment.
    
($1 = 69.6780 Indian rupees)

 (Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi
Aich)
 ((chandini.m@thomsonreuters.com; +91-82-6749-7919; Reuters
Messaging: chandini.m.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))