MUMBAI: US banking giant Citigroup said Friday it had sold its entire 9.85-percent stake in India's biggest mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC).
A spokesman for the bank told Dow Jones Newswires all 145.3 million shares had been sold, with the price estimated to be between 630.00-703.55 rupees each.
The sale is estimated to have raised about $2.1 billion for the New York-based banking group, the news agency said.
Analysts say Citi has offloaded the shares to raise cash as it faces write-downs on its stake in the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage and requirements for higher capital reserves from regulators.
Citigroup bought into HDFC in 2005, but it has been unable to expand its operations and has been frustrated by restrictive Indian regulations governing foreign banks, analysts say.
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