Image used for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Yes Bank Ltd. standalone net profit increased more than two fold to ₹553.04 crore in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, compared with ₹225 crore in the year ago period.
| Photo Credit: G. Ramakrishna

Yes Bank Ltd. standalone net profit increased more than two fold to ₹553.04 crore in the second quarter of fiscal 2025, compared with ₹225 crore in the year ago period.

The bank’s net interest income increased 14.3% to ₹2,200 crore and net interest margin stayed flat at around 2.4% in the reporting quarter as compared with the same period in the previous year. The lender’s asset quality stayed the same as gross non-profitable asset ratio(NPA) was at 1.6% in the reporting quarter. The net NPA ratio too was flat at 0.5% in Q2FY25. The bank reduced its standard restructured accounts to 0.9% of the advances, down from 2.2% in the year ago period. In terms of value, the restructured accounts came in at ₹2,125 crore in the current quarter.

The deposit growth came in at 18.3% in the reporting quarter, as against 17.2% in the corresponding period last fiscal. However, this comes on a higher base set in the last quarter of FY24, when the deposits grew at 22.5% followed by 21% in the first quarter of the current fiscal. Loan advanced grew 12.4% on a year-on-year basis, spruced by a nearly 26% increase in MSME lending.

“The Bank continues to deliver as per the stated strategic objectives, with superior growth in SME and Mid Corporate segments, growth resumption in the Corporate segment and calibration of growth in Retail segment, aimed at profitability improvement. Bank also continues to maintain NIL PSL shortfalls” said Prashant Kumar, Managing Director & CEO, YES BANK, in a statement.

The lender increased provisioning coverage ratio to 70% in the reporting quarter, as compared with 56.4% in the same quarter last year.

In another set of regulatory filing, Yes Bank also listed the use of proceeds of green bond issuances. According to the filing, Yes bank was among the firsts to issue green bonds.As of September 30 2024, the bank has a green bond outstanding valule of abour ₹1315 crore of which just ₹1000 crore issued in February 2015 were allotted. The rest has not yet been allotted according to the regulatory filings. The has used the procceeds to nine fund green energy projects across states, and the largest one being a 300 MW solar energy project in Rajasthan which took more than ₹421 crore from the allotted ₹1000 crore. All the projects put together will potentially avoid 2.9 lakh total CO2 per year of emission, the filing said.

During the quarter, CRISIL and Care upgraded the bank’s Basel III Tier 2 infrastructure bonds rating to A+ from A, the company said in its statement.

Rana Kapoor, founder of the Yes Bank. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

A special court in Mumbai granted bail to Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor on Friday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai, arrested Mr. Kapoor on March 7, 2020, for involvement in a ₹ 466.51 crore bank fraud. He was also charged with money laundering and eight other cases related to bank fraud. He secured bail in all the cases filed against him by the ED. Mr. Kapoor walked out of Taloja Central Prison at 7p.m after more than 4-years of incarceration.

Mr. Kapoor’s lawyer Rahul Agarwal said, “The case in brief is that Yes Bank Ltd was accused of misappropriation of the impugned loan amount and through Bliss Abode Private Limited (BAPL) had the sole intention of taking over the prime property at Amrita Shergill Marg (ASM) in New Delhi. Rana Kapoor had filed a bail application on the ground that the allegations in the chargesheet do not prima facie reveal his role in the case and no offence is made out against him. In the present case, Mr. Kapoor was sent to police custody on August 14, 2021, and had been in judicial custody since 21, 2021 in the present case.”

Criminal conspiracy

The court granted bail to Mr. Kapoor in the CBI’s case against him and Avantha Group promoter Gautam Thapar for alleged criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and forgery to divert ₹ 466.51 crore in public money.

The other two accused in the case are already on bail and Gautam Thapar was released on bail without arrest. Rana Kapoor also stated that he was never the sole/final approving authority of the impugned loan transaction and the entire Management Credit Committee (MCC) involving other members had collectively approved the Impugned loan unanimously. Each member had a right to veto and no one objected to the sanction of the load despite an elaborate credit appraisal mechanism.  

“Some of the members of the MCC were named as witnesses by the CBI but are named as ‘accused’ in the PMLA offence by the ED and their respective statements were recorded by the ED. CBI’s main allegation in the chargesheet is that the property at ASM was purchased at an undervalued consideration is baseless and reliance was placed on various valuation reports which were either pre-demonetisation era or the valuation itself was defective,” said Mr. Agarwal.  

‘False claim’ in chargsheet

Mr. Agarwal also claims that the ED chargesheet falsely and mischievously portrays that Rana Kapoor was somehow obligated to disclose his wife’s interest in BAPL, and in the transaction with Avantha Reality Ltd (ARL), and that he failed to do so but Rana Kapoor duly disclosed to Yes Bank Ltd‘s Board of Directors that his wife was a Director of BAPL which is borne out in the chargesheet. 

“The chargesheet makes out a vague case that three loans were granted by Yes Bank Ltd to Avantha Group (AG) entities prior to and after the sale of the property to BAPL, that were not used for specified purposes. No connection was drawn by CBI between such loans and the sale transaction of the property, and none exists. Considering all this evidence, the court released him on bail,” Mr. Agarwal informed.