Tayal not open to sell stake in Bank of Rajasthan

Mumbai, May 9 (PTI) Crisis-ridden private-sector lender, Bank of Rajasthan's promoter, P K Tayal today ruled out any possibility of selling his stake in the bank amidst speculations that ICICI Bank and Axis have evinced interest for a buy out.

"There are people who are coming (to buy the stake). They are not welcome...The answer is no," Tayal told PTI when asked whether he was open to sell his shareholding in the bank.

At present, Tayals have a stated holding of around 28 per cent in Bank of Rajasthan while according to market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, promoters' actual holding in the entity is around 55 per cent.

Recently, media reports said that ICICI Bank and Axis held preliminary discussions with Tayals for a possible buy out of the latter' stake in the bank. When contacted, ICICI Bank did not offer any comments. Axis Bank officials were not immediately available for response.

BoR, which is one of the oldest private sector banks in the country, plunged into a crisis early this year after Reserve Bank slapped Rs 25-lakh fine on the bank for alleged violation of various norms.

These include irregularities in transactions and misrepresentation of documents, norms pertaining to anti-money laundering, Know Your Customer and irregularities in the conduct of accounts of a corporate group.

The Reserve Bank also appointed Deloitte Haskins and Sells to conduct a special audit of the bank, which recently submitted its interim report to the Reserve Bank.
    
"The (interim) report of the special audit has been submitted by Deloitte to the RBI. We have received a copy of that," Bank of Rajasthan's RBI appointed Managing Director and CEO, G Padmanabhan said. But he did not disclose further details about the report saying that it was not appropriate for him to do that as the special audit was ordered by RBI.
    
In March, Sebi banned 100 entities including Tayal Group firms from all stock market-related activities for fraudulently hiking the promoter holding in the bank.
    
In its order, Sebi had said that the promoters had apparently conveyed the impression that they are reducing their shareholding but they did not, in fact, dilute their controlling stake.
    
"On the contrary, they had actually increased their shareholding in a deceptive and fraudulent manner with the active connivance of others," Sebi said.
    
Incepted in 1943, BoR has a network of over 463 branches and a customer-base of over 20 lakh. In the December quarter, the bank's net profit declined to Rs 44.7 crore as against Rs 49.21 crore in the year-ago period while its total income dropped to Rs 373.7 crore from Rs 419.8 crore.