YES Bank may appoint new i-banks for QIP

YES Bank has hinted at having a new set of investment bankers and legal team when it re-launches its Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) of shares.

Last month, the private sector lender had to abort its $1 billion fund raising plan via QIP, after what is said was “misinterpretation” of guidelines, amid a sharp slide in its stock price during the share sale.

“We would like to mobilise meaningful anchors, like we did in 2015 when we raised half a billion dollars. There have been some learnings from the past. We are looking at a set of banks and a supportive legal system,” said Rana Kapoor, managing director, after its second quarter results announcement.

Foreign ownership in the bank was 42.5 per cent, he said, and there was room to increase that to 74 per cent. With the better economic growth, the bank is confident it will be able to raise the money successfully.

In June, it had got approval from its board of directors and the shareholders to raise capital up to $1 billion (Rs 6,700 crore) by “issue of shares or convertible securities” to an extent of 15 per cent dilution. The approval is valid till June 2017. Kapoor said the aim was mop the capital in one or more tranches before the approval lapsed.

YES Bank had appointed Goldman Sachs, Motilal Oswal and Citic CLSA for the failed QIP issue. Citic and Goldman are among the top 10 investment banks in the equity capital market.

Luthra & Luthra, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Allen & Overy were among the legal counsels for the QIP.

“Due to extreme volatility during today’s (Thursday) trading day because of misinterpretation of new QIP guidelines, YES Bank has been advised by its appointed merchant bankers to defer its proposed QIP,” the lender had stated on September 8.

The said misinterpretation was on a Securities and Exchange Board of India norm that mandated a QIP offering having to be kept open for two working days.

According to reports, Sebi is also probing whether YES Bank and its investment bankers had made all the requisite disclosures to the stock exchanges in the period before the QIP. The regulator is also probing the stock movement at the time.