CA Basque loses right to nominate director on bank's board, says Yes Bank

Carlyle affiliate trims Yes Bank stake to 4.22% via ₹1,774.89 crore block deals and loses board nomination right; senior resignations and strategic restructuring continue

Yes Bank on Wednesday said that CA Basque Investments, an affiliate of global investment firm Carlyle Group, will no longer have the right to nominate a director to the bank’s Board, following its sale of a 2.62 per cent stake in the bank earlier this week through block deals.

 

Pursuant to the sale, CA Basque Investments holds 4.22 per cent stake in the bank. At the end of March quarter, CA Basque held 6.84 per cent share in the bank.

 

“In accordance with the terms of the investment agreement dated July 29, 2022, executed between the investor and the bank, the investor no longer has the right to nominate a director on the board of the bank,” the bank said in a disclosure to the exchanges.

 

CA Basque Investments sold shares of Yes Bank in the price range of ₹21.61-21.68 apiece, taking the combined transaction value to ₹1,774.89 crore.

 

Carlyle, along with Advent International, acquired a 9.9 per cent stake in Yes Bank in 2022, when the two private equity majors collectively invested ₹8,896 crore in the lender.

 

Advent International, through Vervanta Holdings, holds a 9.2 per cent stake in the bank as of March 2025.

 

Shweta Jalan serves as non-executive nominee director on behalf of Vervanta Holdings on the banks’ Board.

 

Recently, State Bank of India (SBI) and seven private sector banks, which had invested in Yes Bank during its reconstruction in March 2020, together decided to sell 20 per cent stake in the private sector lender for ₹13,482 crore to Japan based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). This was the largest cross-border deal in the banking sector of India.

 

Following the consummation of the deal, SMBC will have the right to nominate two directors on the bank’s Board while SBI will have one nominee director from the current two.

 

Meanwhile, the bank also disclosed to the exchanges that Sanjiv Roy, country head, fee-based products of the bank has tendered his resignation to pursue career aspirations and opportunities outside the bank.

 

Additionally, Akshay Sapru, country head — private banking, liabilities products and spectrum banking —also tendered his resignation.

 

Both of them tendered their resignation on April 3, and have been discharged from their duties as of June 4. 

 

In April, it was reported that the bank had asked four senior employees, including Sapru, Roy, Dhaval Shah, head of small- and medium-sized enterprises banking, and Pankaj Sharma, chief strategy officer, to step down.

 

In an interview to Business Standard, Prashant Kumar, managing director and chief executive officer, Yes Bank, had said that this (restructuring) was done to make the whole structure very efficient. 

 

“If you have three different verticals, which can be combined into one, you will get a cost advantage. There will be more efficiency, and friction will get removed in terms of achieving your business targets,” he had said.

 

“We had a fee-based business, which was sitting on a separate vertical. But ultimately, fee-based business is coming from branches. We have merged it into branch banking. Similarly, micro enterprise, which is a very small segment of the small and medium enterprises (SME), sees everything happening through branches. So, we have merged into branch banking. This was essentially about creating synergy and convergence at the top leadership level to drive greater efficiency. The primary focus of the entire restructuring process was to achieve business convergence so as to ensure a more seamless delivery experience for the customer,” he added.