HDFC-HDFC Bank merger: Better late than never

There won't be instant gratification for investors but the move will catapult the bank into the big league

In Samuel Beckett’s classic, Waiting for Godot, two tramps, Vladimir (nicknamed Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), are engaged in a variety of discussions and encounters while waiting for the enigmatic Godot who never shows up.

This theatre of the absurd has prompted people to use the phrase “waiting for Godot” to describe a situation where they are waiting for something to happen but which probably never will.

Till April 4, the Indian financial system and the community of investors were mimicking Didi and Gogo, waiting for the merger of the Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC), India’s largest mortgage firm, with its offspring,