Indian Private Equity Fund and Indocean Financial Holding Ltd, two Chase Manhattan Bank affiliates advised by Indocean Chase Capital Advisors -- the Indian private equity arm of the Chase Group -- are acquiring 10 per cent and 4.99 per cent NatWest stake in HDFC Bank respectively.

HDFC Investments, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), will pick up 5 per cent NatWest stake in the bank at the same consideration. With this, the HDFC group's stake in the bank would go up to 31 per cent.

Addressing a news conference here today, the chairman of HDFC, Deepak Parikh, said the agreement will help HDFC Bank to provide Indian corporates access to a worldwide network and a wide range of international banking products.

NatWestcontinues to hold a few hundred shares in the bank for the time being while the two Chase affiliates will have one representative each on the HDFC Bank board replacing the NatWest members.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of HDFC Bank approved the strategic business collaboration between the bank and Chase Manhatten Bank last month. HDFC Bank will now sign a memorandum of understanding with Chase for the partnership. The bank has already received Reserve Bank of India approval for entering into the MoU.

"The basic underlying rationale for the new strategic business collaboration is to enable HDFC Bank to provide its customers a wide range of international banking products by leveraging Chase's global banking capabilities and branch network outside India," said the HDFC Bank press statement.

"The objective is to enable HDFC Bank to remain in the forefront of banking technology and product development with help from Chase. The collaboration would also provide the global clients of Chase broader access tolocal banking products and services through the capabilities and extensive branch network of HDFC Bank," it says.

NatWest is selling its 20 per cent stake in HDFC Bank following the group's decision to exit from Asia early this year. The exact nature of Chase's future holding in HDFC Bank is still being worked out.

However, it is not the monitory benefits alone which make TOP a from the implementation of the ideas generated Initial savings from TOP is alreeady projcteed at Rs 80 crore--this is just the tip of the ice-berg. Among all the banking sector scrips, HDFC Bank shares has the largest price earning multiple. HDFC Bank shares are currently traded at around Rs 60 at a price earning multiple of 22 times as compared to other bank scrips which are quoted at mutiples of below 10 times.