In a shocking development, the People’s Bank of China- the Central Bank of the People’s Republic of China, has acquired 1.01 per cent stake in India’s top lender, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC).
This is an alarming financial investment by the Communist regime of China, and according to the data submitted by HDFC at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the People’s Bank of China has acquired as many as 1.75 crore shares in the quarter ended March.
China has targeted the lending major at a critical time, having realised that the HDFC shares have been going down continuously in the past few seeks amidst the slowdown triggered by the Coronavirus that originated in China’s wet markets in the first place.
Since the first week of February, the shares of HDFC shares have fallen by 41 per cent shortly after hitting a record high of Rs. 2,499.65 on January 14, 2020.
But during the Coronavirus slowdown followed by the lockdown, the HDFC shares have contracted by 25 per cent at the Sensex and those at the Nifty 50 have shrunk by 26 per cent. On April 10, the HDFC shares closed at Rs. 1,701.95.
HDFC had to announce the acquisition by the People’s Bank of China, since it crossed the regulatory threshold of 1 per cent. According to Vice Chairman and CEO Keki Mistry, China’s Central Bank held 0.8 per cent share in the company as of March 2019.
Mistry added, “They have been accumulating the shares over a year and are now holding 1.1 percent.” The acquisition of HDFC shares is part of Beijing’s economic warfare and soft imperialism. In fact, the People’s Bank of China holds stakes in companies like BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc. across the world.
Presently, China has realised that it is facing outrage across the world owing to its negligence and subsequent coverup which has created one of the worst Pandemics in decades that has caused more than one lakh deaths across the world, apart from crippling the world economy.
Before the entire world order gets shaken up badly, Beijing wants to derive maximum yield out of the Pandemic. This is why it has also gone into an overdrive selling masks, faulty testing kits and ventilators to the Coronavirus-battered countries.
It has also strongarmed countries into accepting its rejected telecom major, Huawei’s 5G technology. But what about India? The country largely touted as an alternative for the “world’s factory” China.
For India, Beijing seems to be looking at predatory financial investment, that is, buying out stakes in companies that are engulfed in a deep crisis caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic. This also comes at the backdrop of European nations like Germany, Spain and Italy tightening FDI laws to prevent Chinese intrusion.
HDFC is just the start, the mighty Dragon might actually be eyeing top Indian companies across a range of sectors, including the banking and financial sector in order to hijack the Indian economy, even as China continues to face global outrage. China’s economic warfare could have very well hit India with People’s Bank of China buying 1.75 crore shares in HDFC.