YES Bank surges 15% on report Rana Kapoor may sell stake to Paytm

YES Bank, however, issued a clarification to the stock exchanges, saying the reports were 'speculative in nature'

YES Bank shares zoomed 15 per cent to Rs 72.55 apiece in early morning trade on the BSE on Wednesday, on reports that the private lender's co-founder Rana Kapoor was in talks with One97 Communications, owner of Paytm, to sell his stake.

Kapoor and his associate entities owned 10.6 per cent in the bank at the end of June 2019. Around 7.34 per cent of the Kapoor family stake has been pledged with Reliance Nippon Asset Management Company (RNAMC).

At 10:02 AM, YES Bank was trading 5.78 per cent higher at Rs 66.75 as compared to 0.35 per cent gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. Almost 71.5 million shares have changed hands on the NSE and BSE so far.

According to reports, Kapoor has held preliminary talks with Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of One97 Communications. The structure of the deal would depend on the approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), given that Sharma already owns a stake in Paytm Payments Bank. READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

However, YES Bank issued a clarification to the the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), saying the reports were 'speculative in nature'.

"The Bank in the usual and ordinary course of its business continues to explore various means of raising capital/funds through issuance of securities to diverse set of investors, in order to meet its business/ regulatory requirements, subject to compliance with prescribed procedures and receipt of statutory I regulatory approvals," it said. READ THE FILING HERE

YES Bank had been under the regulator’s scanner for its corporate governance practices and the under-reporting of bad loans numbers. Kapoor was denied an extension to continue as MD and CEO by the RBI in November 2018.

Ravneet Gill was appointed MD and CEO of YES Bank from March 2019.