INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Yes Bank shares were up 27.77 per cent at Rs 39.60.Mumbai: Rajat Monga, the senior group president and former chief financial officer at
the troubled lender Yes Bank, has quit, chief executive Ravneet Gill said on Thursday.The announcement came during a conference call with
investors and analysts following a heavy plunge in the bank's share price over the past few sessions.The bank scrip had dipped to historic
lows and lost 22 per cent of its value just on Tuesday to close at a low Rs 32, down from a high of Rs 404 in August 2018 when RBI asked
Rana Kapoor to leave the bank
Mr Gill's comments before the markets opened lifted the stock, though, rallying over 24 per cent on the BSE, whose benchmark was down around
0.3 per cent.Mr Gill made the announcement in response to a query on why Mr Monga, the long-time number 2 at the bank since the days when it
was headed by the expelled promoter-chief executive Rana Kapoor, was missing from the concall."Rajat has decided to move on
For the past two years he has been carrying a lot of load and needed some time offso has decided to leave," Mr Gill said.Mr Gill, who
replaced Rana Kapoor in March following the latter's term being cut short by the RBI over governance issues and under-reporting of bad
loans, said the possibility of Mr Monga taking a sabbatical was also discussed but he decided to move on."He just felt that he was at that
stage of his life and career where he needed to step back, reassess his future course personally and professionally," Mr Gill said.The
disclosure of the resignation comes at a time when the Rana Kapoor family's holding in the bank has come to very low levels - under 2 per
cent from a high of a little over 13 per cent in August 2018, following the sale of 3.92 per cent holding by an asset manager with whom the
holding was pledged as a security.Meanwhile, Mr Gill tried to assuage investor concerns asserting that the share price is not much related
with the fundamentals."The fall in share price is not reflective of the core operating performance of the bank which I can assure you is
strong and robust," he claimed, adding the liquidity and capital positions are much above the mandatory thresholds.The bank, which is known
for high growth, is consolidating and taking a measured growth approach, Mr Gill added.He said a few key officials, who continue to be
associated with the lender, have sold their personal holdings due to issues of loans that they would have taken to buy the employee stock
options and added that these actions have nothing to do with their commitment to the bank.Replying to a query on depositor concerns in the
wake of a reduction in deposit base, Mr Gill said this has to be seen in the context of a shrinking asset base, and noted that it added 1.80
lakh new accounts during the September quarter
But its balance sheet has shrunk by over 4 per cent now over last year.The new deposits are also up 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter, he
said.The bank is engaged in regular discussions with the RBI and the finance ministry, and both of them want a "strong and independent" Yes
Bank, Mr Gill said, answering a query on whether a merger has ever been discussed.The bank is on the lookout for capital either from a
private equity investor or a strategic investor or family office, he said.The asset quality issues it is facing are made partly difficult by
the challenging macroeconomic environment and the bank does not anticipate any troubles cropping up in the portfolio, chief risk officer
Ashish Agarwal said.The bank scrip was trading 27.77 per cent up at Rs 39.60 at 1210 hours on the BSE as against a 0.40 per cent correction
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