HDFC plans to buy Lever House in Mumbai

Country's largest housing finance company HDFC is planning to buy Hindustan Unilever's former headquarters, Lever House, located at Backbay Reclamation in the southern tip of the megapolis.

"Today, the HUL building is on lease with us and we have the right to  buy it and we will buy it," chairman Deepak Parekh told the shareholders at the annual general meeting held here over the weekend.

No financial details were immediately available.

HUL was housed at the Lever House for 46 years before it moved to a new campus in Andheri (East) in North Mumbai in January 2010.

The mortgage lender will also shift its general insurance arm, HDFC Ergo General Insurance, and HDFC Mutual Fund to the building. "The group's requirement is very large. We are also going to move HDFC Ergo and mutual fund," Parekh said.

Currently, HDFC is headquartered at Ramon House (in the same area in south Mumbai) where it started its operations in 1977. Later, it took over the entire building but chose to retain the name.

On this, Parekh said, "We do not want to change the name Ramon House, where we started, because it is good luck for us. We want to retain the name Ramon House."

However, the 1.53 lakh sqft HUL building will be named as HDFC House, Parekh added.