YES Bank hits five-month low; stock tanks 44% in a month

YES Bank shares hit five-month low of Rs 149, down 5 per cent, on the BSE in early morning trade after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) appointed former deputy governor Rama Subramaniam Gandhi as an additional director on the board of the private sector lender for two years.

The stock was trading at its lowest level since November 29, 2018, on the BSE.

“The Reserve Bank of India on May 14, 2019 informed that in exercise of powers conferred under sub- section (1) of Section 36AB of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, appointed Shri R Gandhi, Ex Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India as Additional Director on the Board of the Bank for a period of 2 years with effect from May 14, 2019 to May 13, 2021 or till further orders, whichever is earlier,” YES Bank said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday, after market hours.

This appointment will significantly strengthen YES Bank's Board Composition and the Bank will immensely benefit from R. Gandhi's experience and wisdom at the YES Bank, it said.

YES Bank's market price has tanked 44 per cent in the past month as compared to a 4 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Most of the rating agencies – CARE Ratings, Brickwork Ratings (BWR), Icra and India Ratings – downgraded the bank's long-term ratings with a negative outlook.

Icra has downgraded Yes Bank's tier-I and tier-II bonds and infrastructure debt on deterioration in the credit quality of large ticket borrowers.

With a sizeable increase in the share of BB and below rated advances and the weakened capital cushions, the outlook on the ratings remains Negative. The bank’s ability to resolve these advances in a timely manner will remain a key driver of its asset quality, profitability and capital position, ICRA said in rating rational on May 3.

BWR believes YES Bank’s net profit may be impacted in the near term due to any inadvertent increase in provisions arising from further weakening of assets over the next few quarters and thereby its impact on the capital adequacy ratios, especially the CET-1.

“The revision in the ratings of various debt instruments of YES Bank factors in deterioration in the bank’s core capitalization with Common Equity Tier I (CET I) Ratio declining to 8.4 per cent as against minimum regulatory requirement of 7.375 per cent as on March 31, 2019 and 8.00 per cent by March 31, 2020 (including CCB of 1.875 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively); however the bank’s Total CAR stood at 16.5 per cent as on March 31, 2019,” CARE Ratings said in a May 9 press release.

At 10:00 am, YES Bank was trading 4 per cent lower at Rs 150 on the BSE, as compared to a 0.28 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 26.6 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE so far.