More strong recovery steps like Anil Ambani group in order: YES Bank

Bank says will dispose properties in many other cases as well, but does not elaborate on borrowers against whom such action is underway

Private lender YES Bank will take more aggressive steps to recover bad loans like it did in the case the Anil Ambani group, whose headquarters it took over in the financial capital, for failure to repay dues.

“In the coming months, you will see more such instances across various categories of borrowers. In resolution and recoveries, the bank needs to follow due legal process. The bank has initiated action on each and every account (bad loan) for recoveries,” YES Bank CEO Prashant Kumar told Business standard.

The private sector lender took possession of two flats owned by Anil Ambani group in South Mumbai for non-payment of dues by Reliance Infrastructure.

Kumar said the private lender is disposing some of the properties in many other cases as well. He, however, declined elaborate on borrowers against whom such action was underway.

The lender's gross NPAs stood at 17.3 per cent in Q1FY21, as against 16.8 per cent in March 2020. The GNPA Ratio increased sequentially on account of decrease in advances, which declined due to a variety of reasons like sell-downs, repayments and lack of fresh disbursements.

Referring to the bank's Q1 performance, Kumar said a year-on-year comparison was not appropriate as the bank was under moratorium four months ago. The sequential comparison would be more appropriate. There was growth in deposits and infusion of capital.

Its net profit for Q1FY21 stood at Rs 45.44 crore, against a net loss of Rs 3,668.3 crore in Q4FY20.It had booked a net profit of Rs 113.76 crore in Q1FY20. Sequentially, the total deposits rose to Rs 117,360 crore in June 2020 from Rs 105,364 crore in March 2020. In deposits were at Rs 225,902 crore.

The bank, now an associate entity of State Bank of India, saw capital infusion of Rs 10,000 crore as part of a rescue package hammered out by the Reserve Bank of India. Later, bank raised Rs 15,000 crore in equity capital through follow-on-public offer. Yes Bank stock closed 1.7 per cent higher at 11.95 per share on BSE.