YES Bank shares climb 5% on fund-raising plan; board to meet on Jan 10

YES Bank said it would discuss and consider raising of funds by issue of equity shares or depository receipts/ convertible bonds/debentures or any other equity-linked securities.

Shares of YES Bank gained 5 per cent to Rs 47.25 on the BSE in the early morning trade on Wednesday after the private sector lender announced it will hold a board meeting on Friday, January 10 to discuss fund raising.

In an exchange filing, YES Bank said it would discuss and consider raising of funds by issuing equity shares or depository receipts/ convertible bonds/debentures or any other equity-linked securities. The bank has been in discussions with potential investors to raise funds for a long time.

The stock has underperformed the market by falling 36 per cent from its recent high of Rs 70 on October 28, as compared to less than a per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex till Tuesday.

Last month, rating agencies, India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra), ICRA, Care Ratings and Crisil had downgraded the rating of various bond issues of YES Bank, citing more than expected delay in raising core equity capital.

There is continued uncertainty related to quantum and timelines of raising equity capital, which would keep the bank’s capital buffers at low levels and provide lower cushion to absorb any losses on account of higher provisioning requirement due to weakening of asset quality, the rating agencies said.

At 09:34 am, YES Bank was trading 3 per cent higher at Rs 46.30 on the BSE. In comparison, the Sensex was down 0.48 per cent at 40,672 points. A combined 33.64 million equity shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE so far.