HOW THE BIG 3 RULE FINANCIAL SERVICES

When the company that runs ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund lists on the stock market later this month, it will become the fourth financial services business from the ICICI Group to go public.

- BY HOWINDIALIVES.COM

In doing so, ICICI Group will break away from two of its peers, State Bank of India (SBI) Group and HDFC Group, each of which has three listed businesses. All three are behemoths with fingers in every financial services pie of size and significance, having driven and shaped the massive opening up of India's financial sector after 1991. However, they have gone about this in different ways, with banking behemoth SBI delivering some surprises. Mint takes a closer look at how all three giants are performing.

MIXED VALUATIONS

STOCK RETURNS over the long term are one of the indicators of their performance. For all three groups, only their banks have a long track record on the bourses. The other businesses, principally mutual funds and insurance, have all been listed in the past five years or so. And contrary to perception, they have not always beaten the market.

Over the past five years, only three of the nine businesses have outperformed the bellwether BSE Sensex: SBI, SBI Life Insurance, and ICICI Bank. Over 10 years and 15 years, all three banks topped the Sensex. But over 20 years and 25 years, HDFC Bank beat the Sensex, while ICICI Bank and SBI trailed it.

All three banks are among the 12 stocks that have been part of the Sensex for 20 years or more.

During this period, the Sensex has delivered a compounded annual return of 16.7%. But only two of the 12 stocks, HDFC Bank and Maruti Suzuki, have bettered that.

SBI: BANKING KING