Yes Bank pledged shares: Reliance Nippon Life yet to give consent for sale

Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management (RNAM) has clarified that it has not given consent for any transaction relating to Yes Bank’s pledged shares. Several media reports suggested that Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank was looking to exit by selling his and his family’s stake to Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm. Rana Kapoor and his family have around 9.65% stake in the bank, and according to the reports, they have pledged 7.34% with RNAM.

A spokesperson of RNAM said, “Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management (RNAM) has not given any consent and is not in discussion with anyone about Yes Bank pledged shares.” The shares of Yes Bank on Wednesday ended the day at Rs 71.60, gaining 13.47% on BSE. Over the last one year, the shares of Yes Bank have fallen by 77.3%.

Yes Bank in its exchange filing on Tuesday had stated that, “We refer to the captioned news item carried out by Reuters and few others, which are speculative in nature and would like to clarify the facts as under: 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/regulatory approvals.”

Reports indicated that Rana Kapoor had held a preliminary discussion with Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The structure of the deal would depend on the approval of The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) given that Sharma already owns stake in Paytm Payments Bank. Ravneet Gill, the current chief executive officer of Yes Bank, who took charge in March, has said the bank wants to increase focus on compliance and governance.

Yes Bank