Shares of Yes Bank jumped as much as 3.3% on Friday after CEO Ravneet Gill assured that the worst is over for the bank and there are unlikely to be any further nasty surprises due to higher bad loans or slippages from its watchlist.
In interviews given to various media houses, Ravneet Gill said the bank has already come clean on potential bad loans and provided for contingent liabilities.
On speculation about Yes Bank’s dealings with Indiabulls Housing Finance, Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL) and Reliance Capital, Gill told the Economic Times: “I spoke to both our auditors and concurrent auditors, and whether they had looked at this aspect closely… both said they have gone really deep and found absolutely no linkages.”
Gill also threw light on reports of Yes Bank’s founder and former chairman Rana Kapoor trying to return to the bank’s board. He completely dismissed the speculation saying: “If you look at it from the point of view of being the largest shareholder, it is in his (Rana Kapoor’s) interest to see a stable board and a stable institution. I don’t see him doing anything that will destabilise that.”
Rana Kapoor on Thursday, in a series of tweets, announced that he is not seeking a comeback at the bank. He also showed full confidence in Yes Bank’s management and board of directors. “The Yes Bank leadership team, MD and CEO Shri Ravneet Gill and Board of Directors have my fullest support,” Kapoor said on his Twitter handle.
Kapoor’s response came after Yes Bank saw exit of two senior-level board members earlier this week. Mukesh Sabharwal, chairman of the nomination and remuneration committee, resigned on Tuesday, a day after former interim CEO Ajai Kumar had put in his papers.
In the interview to ET, Gill said Yes Bank has begun hiring to fill up the vacancies. He said many of the board panels, including the credit and nominations and remunerations committees, could be reconstituted to give comfort to investors.
“On the back of two exits that we have had, we will look to reconstitute the (board) committees. This is one of the points that was discussed given that we have three new members, including Mr Gandhi (former RBI deputy governor R. Gandhi, who was appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to the Yes Bank board in May).”
Source: News18