MUMBAI: Bain Capital is in advanced talks with Axis Bank to invest between $750 million and $1 billion (Rs 4,800-6,400 crore), in what could be one of the largest private equity investments in the Indian banking sector.

India’s third-biggest private lender is in talks to raise money amidst worsening asset quality and regulatory glare.

The Axis Bank Foundation (ABF) has tied up with Sahapedia, an online encyclopedia of Indian arts and culture, to support its ‘Heritage Walks’, a project to help people understand the heritage of the cities and towns across the country.

The ABF, through its Axis Cares programme, will support around 200 guided walking tours being organised by Sahapedia over a period of one year, nearly half of which will be for people with disabilities and underprivileged children.

Global ratings agency Moody's on Thursday said private lender Axis Bank's asset quality may deteriorate further and more than what was previously expected over the next 12-18 months.

In addition, compared to the other rated Indian banks, the bank has been a laggard in recognising its asset quality problems, a credit negative for its credit quality, Moody's said in its statement.

The list of accounts which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently asked Axis Bank to classify as non-performing exposures includes Essar Power Gujarat, Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL), Jindal Stainless, Shree Renuka Sugars, Lanco Kondapalli Power, Lanco Amarkantak Power and Ballarpur Industries, people familiar with the development told FE. These seven exposures are worth close to Rs 90,000 crore, across all lenders to these companies and special purpose vehicles, data from Capitaline showed. Bankers FE spoke to said most lenders were yet to classify these accounts as non-performing assets (NPAs). An email sent to Axis Bank seeking comments remained unanswered till the time of going to press.

The eight consortium accounts that were classified as non-performing assets by Axis Bank last week after a directive from the Reserve Bank of India will have to be classified as NPAs by the other lenders who are part of the consortium, bankers said. The banking sector’s exposure to these accounts would be close to Rs 40,000 crores, Axis Bank told analysts at its recently-held second quarter post-earning call. “The other banks will definitely have to treat them as NPA since these are consortium accounts,” a senior banker with a state-run lender said.

The stock dipped 7% to Rs 475 on the BSE in early morning trade.

Axis Bank dipped 7% to Rs 475 on the BSE in early morning trade after the bank’s asset quality worsen in July-September 2017 quarter (Q2FY18).

The bank’s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) and net NPAs stood at 5.9% and 3.12% in Q2FY18 against 5.03% and 2.30% in Q1FY18, respectively. In the year-ago quarter, gross NPAs were at 4.17% and net NPA were at 2.02% of the loan book.

We upgrade our rating to Buy with a revised TP of Rs 600 (21% upside potential) as we believe that: (i) major NPL recognition is largely over, and coverage at ~60% is comfortable — a higher number would be preferable. There is a strong likelihood of near-term stress from the power sector, but this is known and expected, (ii) valuations have corrected 40% from the peak while they have expanded for the sector in general; the stock has seen a major underperformance of >30% vs.

Mumbai: Axis Bank on Friday said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has identified an additional list of defaulter companies that lenders must now focus on, potentially sending the firms to bankruptcy court should they fail to resolve the troubled loans by 13 December.

Axis did not disclose which companies were on the list, but said it had loans to 12 of the names provided to banks by the RBI earlier this week.

With competition getting hotter in the affordable housing finance sector, private lender Axis Bank will waive 12 equated monthly installments (EMIs) on regular repayments of loans of up to Rs 30 lakh under the new scheme Shubh Aarambh Home Loans.

The lender has introduced Shubh Aarambh Home Loans, in which 12 EMIs are waived — four EMIs each after the fourth, eighth and 12th year — from the date of the first disbursement. The waiver will be in the form of reduction in tenure.

Bajaj Finance Ltd said on Wednesday it would buy nearly an 11 per cent stake in mobile payments wallet company One MobiKwik Systems Private Ltd for about Rs 225 crore ($35.36 million).

Bajaj Finance will enter into a subscription agreement with MobiKwik to buy 10 equity shares and 271,050 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS), Bajaj Finance said.

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