Aditya Puri, who had been with HDFC since its inception in 1994, retired on October 26 last month. Puri previously worked with Citi bank in Malaysia, and came back to India to join HDFC that year while most banks in India were state owned.
When privatisation began with the hope to curb corruption, the head of Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Deepak Parekh recruited Puri at less than half his compensation at Citi, partial credit of which goes to Puri’s wife Anita who convinced him to take the offer. Puri’s style of working was often laughed off because of his working hours. He’d often have lunch with his wife at home and left office at 5:30 pm sharp which is touted as the secret to his success.
HDFC is now the world’s 10th largest bank, leaving behind Citi and HSBC. Headquartered in Mumbai, HDFC in Indian and branches all over the country from metropolitan cities to rural backwaters. “It serves consumers and firms and eschews the wilder reaches of investment banking and foreign adventures. This unlikely formula has produced spectacular results,” The Economist wrote in an article titled, ‘The world’s best banker?’
According to a comparative study by the publication, Aditya Puri has delivered cumulative returns exceeding 16,000% over the quarter century since HDFC went public. This figure beats the likes of Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase. This not only places Puri in the top two, but also makes one ponder that such returns were almost impossible to imagine back in 1994.
The success of Puri’s tenure is marked by his ability to retain talent, bluntness, clear vision, strategic discipline and his approach to technology. Interestingly, Puri is famous for not owning a mobile phone and conducting meetings without a computer system on the table. Yet, HDFC invested heavily in technology and loan approvals reduced from days to seconds.
Puri’s legacy was almost in safe hands until 2018 with his CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan. But Jagdishan quit despite being the most likely successor of Puri. Aditya Puri will be guiding global Carlyle on investment opportunities across Asia as a senior advisor, the global private equity major. Puri said Carlyle is known for its ability to transform businesses, working closely in partnership with management teams and other key stakeholders to drive sustainable long-term growth.
Carlyle deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. It has $230 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2020 and employs more than 1,800 people in 30 offices across six continents.
