Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Ace Investor, Acquires Stake In Yes Bank For Rs 87 Crore

Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has bought approximately 1.3 crore shares of Yes Bank for around Rs 87 crore through open market transactions. According to bulk deal data available with the Bombay Stock Exchange Exchange, Jhunjhunwala purchased 1,29,50,000 shares of the private lender amounting to 0.5 per cent stake. The shares were bought at an average price of Rs 67.1, taking the transaction to Rs 86.89 crore, the data showed.

Meanwhile, Yes Bank reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 629.1 crore for the September quarter on Monday. The private sector lender had posted a net profit of Rs 951.47 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal. Sequentially, there was net profit of Rs 95.56 crore in the first quarter ended June of this fiscal.

Total income (consolidated) also slipped to Rs 8,347.50 crore during July-September 2019-20, as against Rs 8,713.67 crore in the same period last year, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Gross bad loans jumped to 7.39 per cent of the gross advances as on September 30, 2019, from 1.60 per cent a year ago. Net NPAs or bad loans too rose to 4.35 per cent as against 0.84 per cent.

Earlier, Yes Bank, which reported a surge in NPAs in the September quarter, feels its stressed loans situation could have been much better but for "torpedos" that hit the private sector lender. These "torpedos" which hit his ship include exposures to Cafe Coffee Day, Altico Capital, CG Power and Cox and Kings, the bank's chief executive Ravneet Gill has said. ‘Every torpedo that got fired hit us,’ he told a select group of reporters. He said these accounts itself led to a Rs 4,000 crore bloating of the below investment grade book to Rs 31,000 crore from the Rs 29,000 crore in the preceding quarter. Gill exuded confidence that the bank does not see any jump in this book in the future, but conceded that it was keeping a similar outlook earlier as well. "You cannot foresee such issues where stress gets created suddenly," he said.

The bank does not have a watchlist of assets which can slip into NPAs, Gill said, adding that the Rs 10,000 crore list he had pointed to soon after taking over in March has ended with Rs 7,000 crore of assets slipping into NPAs. For the September quarter, the bank had reported gross non performing assets at 7.39 per cent as against the 5.01 per cent in June and 1.68 per cent in the year-ago period. It had reported the rise in stress despite a 7 per cent contraction in the book, which Gill attributed to capital conservation measures being undertaken by the bank.