Yusuffali Still Holds His 5% Dhanlaxmi Bank Stake

LuLu Group chairman M.A. Yusuffali still owns 5.00% of Thrissur-based Dhanlaxmi Bank, the same ceiling he bought in October 2013. That purchase closed a run through Federal Bank and Catholic Syrian Bank that put close to Rs 510 crore into Kerala’s private lenders in a single year.

Exchange filings through March 2026 put five Kerala bank stocks in his name above Rs 2,866.4 crore. Almost all of that pile sits in Federal Bank. Dhanlaxmi, the name that made the 2013 headlines, is still a 5% slice of a small, promoter-less lender.

A 4.99% Slice of Dhanlaxmi Bank, October 2013

Yusuffali, who runs the UAE retail group behind the LuLu hypermarkets, bought 4.99% of Dhanlaxmi Bank in October 2013. He did not disclose what he paid for that block. Combined with stakes taken the same year in Federal Bank and Catholic Syrian Bank, later renamed CSB Bank, the outlay was close to Rs 510 crore.

He had already taken 4.99% of CSB from Chansiri Chawla, a Bangkok-based NRI businessman who had held 24% and had to cut that holding under Reserve Bank of India rules. In July 2013 he picked up 4.47 percent of Federal Bank from Emirates Financial Services, a unit of Emirates NBD, and became the largest individual shareholder in the Aluva lender.

THE KERALA BANK SHOPPING RUN

1. March 2013: RBI clears a 4.99% holding in Catholic Syrian Bank, bought from Chansiri Chawla.
2. July 2013: Buys 4.47% of Federal Bank from Emirates Financial Services.
3. October 2013: Buys 4.99% of Dhanlaxmi Bank; the three-bank outlay is close to Rs 510 crore.
4. January 2014: Adds more than 2% of South Indian Bank, a fourth Kerala name.
5. September 2018: Takes a preferential block in ESAF Small Finance Bank at Rs 40 a share.

He sold the 2013 buys as a Kerala project, not a trading book. Opening more branches in the state and the Gulf, and lifting operations to match newer private banks, would create jobs and thicken the local economy, he said.

I have always believed in leading by example, so I will continue to invest in Kerala and also urge other NRKs not only to deposit with Kerala based banks but also look at investing in them.

M.A. Yusuffali, chairman, LuLu Group, October 2013

He also said the then-soft cycle was temporary and that he wanted the banks “more competitive and in sync with the new generation banks.” He is still on those registers. The evenness of the outcome is another matter.

Why Every Stake Stops at Five Percent

Each of those 2013 tickets was cut just under 5%. That was not a rounding habit. Under Section 12B of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, anyone who wants to become a major shareholder of a bank needs the central bank’s blessing first.

RBI’s acquisition guidelines, restated on 16 January 2023, define major shareholding as an aggregate holding of five percent or more of paid-up capital or voting rights. Crossing that line without prior approval for a five percent holding is not allowed. If a holding later falls below 5%, a fresh nod is required before it can climb back.

THE FIVE PERCENT GATE

• The trigger: Five percent of paid-up capital or voting rights is major shareholding and needs RBI’s prior approval.
• The individual cap: A non-promoter natural person may go up to 10% of a bank, but only with that approval in hand.
• The reset: Drop below 5% and the next climb back to 5% or more needs a new application.
• The 2026 carve-out: On 1 October 2026 RBI allowed one-time follow-on approvals up to 10% for mutual funds, insurers and pension funds, not for individual buyers.

That last change left Yusuffali where he was. He can sit at 5.00% of Dhanlaxmi Bank as a listed public shareholder. He cannot treat that line as a starting point for control. The same arithmetic is why B. Ravindran Pillai, Dhanlaxmi’s largest individual holder at 10.00% (39,468,000 shares), is a different regulatory animal from a 4.99% ticket.

Federal Bank Did the Heavy Lifting

Federal Bank is where the 2013 cheque compounded. December 2025 filings show Yusuffali with 76,570,640 shares, or 3.14%, valued at Rs 2,177.7 crore at Rs 284.40 a share in the March 2026 Trendlyne compilation. That single line is most of his disclosed bank book.

The percentage is lower than the 4.47% block bought from Emirates, and lower than the 3.95% seen in September 2020, because the bank issued more equity and he pared the holding. The rupee value still dwarfs every other Kerala name he owns. Trendlyne’s five-year return on Federal Bank stock is 317.06%.

Federal had the deposit franchise he was buying: a large Non-Resident Indian base from Kerala, already listed, already big enough to absorb a several-hundred-crore ticket. An Emke Group official said at the time that Emirates Financial Services wanted to sell and that the group “found a new opportunity in Kerala’s banking sector.” The opportunity was Federal. The other two 2013 names did not rerun that tape.

CSB Went to Fairfax; Dhanlaxmi Did Not

Catholic Syrian Bank took a different owner. Fairfax took 51% in 2018 at Rs 140 a share, in a deal worth about Rs 14 billion, and later sold 9.7% at Rs 352.75 on 27 June 2024, cutting its stake to 40%. Yusuffali’s holding was diluted to 2.06%, or 3,581,722 shares, worth Rs 144.2 crore at Rs 402.70 in the March 2026 filings. He is still in the register. He is no longer near 5%.

Dhanlaxmi Bank never got a Fairfax. It still has 0% promoter holding. The latest Dhanlaxmi Bank shareholding filings list Yusuffali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader, the name on the exchange forms, at 5.00% with 19,733,606 shares, worth Rs 52.6 crore at Rs 26.65. Jineesh Nath C.K. holds 7.50%. Foreign portfolio investors held 14.2% in June 2026. The bank’s market capitalisation is about Rs 1,283 crore.

THE 2013 THREE-BANK BOOK

On 21 October 2013 Dhanlaxmi shares traded at Rs 46.65, up 4.71% from Rs 44.55, with a market cap of Rs 495.83 crore. The price is lower now. The equity base is larger. He has stayed at the 5% line through that dilution, which means the Dhanlaxmi ticket was a hold, not a flip. It was also not the engine.

South Indian Bank and ESAF Joined the Book

The 2013 trio was not the end of the pattern. In January 2014 he bought more than 2% of South Indian Bank. December 2025 filings show 112,649,061 shares, or 4.30%, worth Rs 436.5 crore at Rs 38.75. That is the second-largest rupee line after Federal, and it still sits under the 5% gate.

ESAF Small Finance Bank, another Thrissur-area name, came later through preferential allotments: 21,346,993 shares in September 2018 and 1,066,666 shares in March 2021, both at Rs 40, a cash outlay of Rs 89.65 crore on 22,413,659 shares. By December 2025 the holding was 23,118,659 shares, or 4.48%. He topped up after the preferential lots and still stopped short of 5%.

He now appears on every Kerala-headquartered private bank that still files a public shareholding table, plus ESAF. On the ones with no promoter, he is the repeat public name. That is a portfolio built to the rulebook, not a bid for a board.

The Bolgatty Hotel He Promised in the Same Breath

The same 2013 remarks bundled the bank buys with a Grand Hyatt and convention centre on Bolgatty Island in Kochi. That project did get built. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the LuLu Bolgatty International Convention Centre and Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty on 28 April 2018.

LuLu Group put the 1,800 crore Bolgatty convention centre inside a Rs 13,000 crore India plan covering retail, hotels and food processing. The hotel has 264 rooms, 38 suites and luxury villas on 26 acres of waterfront ground. The convention centre was billed at over 10 lakh sq ft, with room for about 10,000 people; the Liwa hall is 20,000 sq ft and takes more than 5,000. The site has three helipads and parking for more than 1,500 cars.

Yusuffali called it his dream project in Kerala and said it would help make Kochi a meetings hub. Whatever one makes of that claim, the hotel is standing. The Dhanlaxmi speech about Gulf branches and “international standards” did not produce a similar before-and-after at that bank.

Where the 2013 Cheque Sits Now

Trendlyne’s compilation of exchange filings for the quarter to 31 March 2026 shows Yusuffali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader holding five stocks worth over Rs 2,866.4 crore. Federal Bank at Rs 2,177.7 crore is the book. South Indian Bank at Rs 436.5 crore is the next weight. CSB Bank at Rs 144.2 crore is the leftover of a Fairfax takeover. Dhanlaxmi Bank at Rs 52.6 crore is the 5.00% line he has not left. ESAF at 4.48% fills the fifth slot.

Add those four valued lines and the total is Rs 2,811.0 crore before ESAF. The Rs 2,866.4 crore figure is the five-stock package, not a restatement of the 2013 Rs 510 crore outlay, which covered only Federal, CSB and Dhanlaxmi and was a cost, not a mark-to-market.

He told Kerala in 2013 that he would keep investing and that other non-resident Keralites should look at the banks, not only the deposit counters. He did keep buying, always under 5% unless RBI had already drawn a different line, as with Pillai’s 10.00% at Dhanlaxmi. The wager paid, and it paid in one stock. The bank whose 4.99% made the October 2013 news still has him at 5.00%, and still looks like the small print.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Stake Did Yusuffali Buy in Dhanlaxmi Bank in 2013?

He bought 4.99% in October 2013 and did not disclose the rupee amount. In the 21 October 2013 session the stock closed at Rs 46.65, up 4.71% from Rs 44.55, and the bank’s market capitalisation was Rs 495.83 crore, which is why a sub-5% ticket was a modest cheque next to the Federal Bank block.

Why Do Individual Bank Stakes in India Stop at Five Percent?

Five percent is the legal trigger for “major shareholding,” so RBI must approve any buy that reaches or crosses it. After that approval, a non-promoter individual may hold up to 10%, and if the stake later slips below 5% the holder must apply again before climbing back, which is why serial 4.99% tickets became the standard NRI pattern.

Did the Grand Hyatt on Bolgatty Island Open?

Yes. Pinarayi Vijayan opened the Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty and the LuLu convention centre on 28 April 2018, five years after Yusuffali announced the project beside the bank buys. It was the third Grand Hyatt-branded hotel in India and sits a 45-minute drive from Cochin International Airport.

Who Sold Yusuffali His Catholic Syrian Bank Shares?

Chansiri Chawla, a Bangkok-based NRI who had acquired 24% of CSB about a decade earlier and had to reduce that holding under RBI rules. S. Santhanakrishnan, then chairman of CSB, said Yusuffali would have paid Rs 260 to Rs 270 a share for the 4.99% block.

When Did He First Buy South Indian Bank Shares?

In January 2014, a few months after the Dhanlaxmi purchase, he bought more than 2% of South Indian Bank, taking his Kerala list to four lenders. That holding later rose to 4.30%, still under the 5% approval line.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of public shareholding filings, company statements and regulatory rules. It is for information only and is not investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any bank share, or a forecast of future prices. Readers who are considering a position in Dhanlaxmi Bank, Federal Bank, CSB Bank, South Indian Bank, ESAF Small Finance Bank or any other security should consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser or other qualified professional who can review their own facts. Share counts, percentages and rupee values reflect the exchange filings and market prices cited above and will change with later quarters, issues of new equity and market moves.