Yes Bank Yet To Select Rana Kapoor’s Successor
Yes Bank said its board chose a new non-executive, part-time chairman.
Yes Bank Ltd. is yet to select a candidate to succeed its Chief Executive Officer Rana Kapoor and will submit a name to the central bank only after Jan. 9.
The bank shortlisted candidates for the post but will zero in on one in its next board meeting in January, it said in an exchange filing.
In the meantime, Yes Bank chose a new non-executive, part-time chairman and shortlisted names for the chief executive officer’s job. The lender will now seek requisite approvals from the Reserve Bank of India, it said in a statement. The lender didn’t disclose any of the names.
Its board now includes two newly independent directors—TS Vijayan and Uttam Agarwal. That leaves only one vacancy after three members quit in the past month citing governance issues.
This comes after months of upheaval at Yes Bank, with multiple resignations, uncertainty regarding the leadership and a stock plunge.
It all started when the Reserve Bank of India denied another term to Co-Founder and CEO Rana Kapoor. While Yes Bank has seen rapid growth over the last decade, Kapoor’s leadership came into question after the regulator pointed out discrepancies in the way the bank reported its bad loan numbers. This led to two consecutive years of higher bad loan ratios reported because of the RBI’s intervention.
On Nov. 14, Chairman Ashok Chawla resigned with immediate effect citing lack of time in the face of an upcoming period of transition. On Nov. 20, independent director R Chandrashekhar quit saying he was concerned about recent events at the company, Bloomberg had reported.
Soon after, credit rating agencies ICRA and Moody’s Investor Service downgraded the lender on the back of corporate governance concerns raised by a series of resignations of its independent directors.
Shares of Yes Bank fell more than 6 percent after the announcement. This compares to a 0.63 percent rise in the NSE Bank Nifty Index. The stock, has fallen more than 40 percent so far this year, was already trading in the negative zone after 2:00 p.m.