Dewan Housing close to acquiring Indian unit of Deutsche Postbank for Rs1,100-cr
01 Dec 2010
Dewan Housing Finance Corp, the second-largest housing finance company in the Indian private sector, is close to buying the Indian housing finance business of Deutsche Postbank, one of Germany's major financial services providers, for about Rs1,100 crore (€181 million).
Bloomberg yesterday reported that Mumbai-based Dewan Housing had emerged the front-runner to buy Deutsche Postbank Home Finance and the talks are at an advanced stage.
The paper said that the deal is in the final stages and it could be finalised within this week.
Bonn-based Postbank, which is being taken over by larger German rival Deutsche Bank had put its Indian housing finance business on the block in October 2010, in line with a global restructuring of the company. (See: Deutsche Postbank puts its Indian housing finance business on block: Reports)
Earlier, Tata Finance, L&T Finance, Indiabulls and Religare were said to be keen on acquiring Deutsche Postbank Home Finance Ltd, and industry experts had then valued the company at around RTs1,500 crore.
Postbank, formed from the demerger of the postal savings division of Deutsche Bundespost in 1990, has been divesting businesses it held through its BHW unit and has already sold similar business units in Eastern Europe.