DHFL not to accept deposits, or allow premature withdrawals

Dewan Housing Finance (DHFLNSE -15.42 %) late Tuesday said it would neither accept new deposits nor allow premature withdrawals after a credit evaluator lowered ratings on the debt instruments issued by the embattled home financier.

“In view of the recent revision in the credit rating of our fixed deposit programme, acceptance of all fresh deposits, as well as renewals, has been put on hold with immediate effect,” read a DHFL e-mail to its customers. ET has seen a copy of the e-mail dis ..

The company did not respond to ET’s mailed queries sent late Tuesday evening.

“The company wants to make things clear to depositors who are not rushing to redeem their deposit units,” said a senior industry executive with direct knowledge of the matter.

The decision comes just after rating agency CARENSE -0.29 % downgraded DHFL’s fixed deposit programme worth Rs 20,000 crore from A to BBB-.

DHFL has about Rs 8,400 crore of loan repayments and securitisation payouts coming up in the next eight weeks. DHFL’s available liquidity in April is pegged at Rs 2,775 crore even as the company is seeking to sell more assets.

The NBFC also assured its stakeholders that it would honour all upcoming payments and have already repaid Rs 30,000 crore since September 2018.

Crisil downgraded Rs 850 crore worth of DHFL commercial papers due to delays in fund inflows from asset sales a ..