Housing finance giant Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) has okayed the sale of a minority stake in its insurance joint venture HDFC Life to Azim Premji Trust.

The sale is being effected in two tranches.

In a communication to the stock exchanges, HDFC said that that it had consented to sell up to 1,89,51,361 shares of ₹10 each of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd (HDFC Life) to Azim Premji Trust at ₹105 per share. The shares to be sold constitute 0.95 per cent of the total issued and paid-up equity capital of HDFC Life.

HDFC said it had concluded the sale of the first tranche of 1,19,69,000 shares out of the total shares agreed to be sold. The rest of the shares covered by the proposal would be sold subsequently, the company said without specifying any specific time-frame for the sale.

Once the sale of all the 1,89,51,361 equity shares was completed, HDFC would hold 71.42 per cent of the total equity capital of HDFC Life.

In the insurance joint venture HDFC Life between HDFC and Standard Life plc of the UK, HDFC Ltd held 72.37 per cent stake and Standard Life (Mauritius Holding) Ltd held 26 per cent of the equity capital, with the balance being held by others. This was before the latest development.

With the decision to offload 0.95 per cent stake in favour of Azim Premji Trust, (Azim Premji is the Chairman of software major Wipro), the stake of HDFC in the insurance joint venture would be down marginally.

According to info available on HDFC Life Web site, HDFC Life has one of the "widest reaches among new insurance companies'' with around 500 branches within India reaching over to customers in more than 900 cities and towns. It also has a liaison office in Dubai.