Top YES Bank investor Bay Tree cuts stake in troubled lender by a third

Bank has cut back lending to companies and tried to win back depositors after being rescued in March 2020,.

Private equity firm Bay Tree India Holdings has sold a 2.1% stake in India’s Yes Bank, reducing its holding by almost a third.

Bay Tree cut its stake in the embattled lender that was the center of India’s largest financial bailout last year, it said in a statement on Tuesday. It now holds a 5.4% stake after multiple sales in the open market between Jan. 6 to May 6.

Bay Tree was the largest anchor investor in Yes Bank’s $2 billion equity raising last year when it paid 22 billion rupees for about 55% of the investor portion. It’s now the second-largest single shareholder after State Bank of India .

Record bad loans, weak corporate governance, as well as depleting capital and deposits led to the collapse of Yes Bank in March 2020, forcing the regulator to ask a group of lenders to infuse capital and rescue it. Since then, the bank has cut back lending to companies and tried to win back depositors under its new CEO Prashant Kumar.

Still, its bad loans remain high and a second coronavirus wave is adding to the challenges of growing its business.