MUMBAI: Yes Bank on Thursday denied allegations of window-dressing bad loans and manipulating its share price, besides dismissing alleged dealings between the bank and its managing director and chief executive Rana Kapoor’s family office that manages personal investments of his three daughters.
In a 4-page response to clarifications sought by NSE, the bank said neither it concealed any bad loans nor entered any transactions with an intent to window dress corporate accounts to hide non-performing assets (NPAs). It further clarified that the bank was subjected to RBI’s comprehensive, annual risk-based supervision and regularly submitted disclosures regarding divergences in asset quality classification, and duly validated by its statutory auditors.
Yet, the bank’s divergences — the difference between NPAs disclosed by it and those assessed by RBI — stood in excess of Rs 10,500 crore in FY16 and FY17.
The bank also denied having any dealings with the Three Sisters family office, and if any parallel lending and investing businesses being run by Kapoor’s family office was compromising the bank’s interests and by doing so, if it was used ‘as a conduit to undue benefits for credit exposures, including real estate exposures.’
Meanwhile, dismissing allegations of manipulating the bank’s stock price ahead of critical capital raising activities like QIPs, the bank said it indeed followed all extant guidelines regarding disclosures of fund raising activities. Citing an example, it recalled that in September, 2016, when the bank decided to defer its QIP, it had voluntarily written to bourses seeking an investigation into the volatility in its share price and any manipulation by vested interests.
Continuing their downward slide, shares of Yes Bank fell 9 per cent Thursday to close at Rs 203.20 on BSE. With today’s close, the private lenders scrip lost nearly 50 per cent in the past five trading sessions.