A number of key officials within the group were not aware until late Sunday night. A top fund manager with the HDFC group and a top official of the bank said that even they got to know about it only late in the evening.
Such was the level of secrecy to keep the merger deal under wraps that even the banner with names of HDFC Bank and HDFC Ltd that was to be put up at the press conference for the merger announcement of the two entities went for printing after midnight Sunday.
(With inputs from agencies)