Kotak Mahindra Bank responds to SBI’s suggestion to buy Yes Bank; here’s what it said

After India’s largest PSU lender State Bank of India’s Chariman Rajnish Kumar suggested that Kotak Mahindra Bank would be an ideal candidate to buy out loss-making Yes Bank, the Uday Kotak-led private sector lender has said that comments made by other bankers do not reflect its views on Yes Bank. “These are comments made by other bankers and reflect their views, and not ours”, Rohit Rao, Chief Communication Officer, Kotak Mahindra Group said in a comment. The comments come after Rajnish Kumar said that SBI does not have adequate funds to acquire loss making Yes Bank. Kumar went on to suggest that Kotak Mahindra Bank would be an ideal suitor. “We are in the business of taking risks, but we should price them correctly. The difference between the private sector banks and public sector banks lies in pricing this risk,” Rajnish Kumar added at India Economic Conclave 2019 on Monday.

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Today’s development comes days after SBI’s CFO denied rumours of the PSU giant being asked to buy out Yes Bank last week. “There is no truth in reports that SBI will be asked to take over YES Bank or any other weak private sector bank,” Prashant Kumar said in an interview to CNBC TV18. SBI shares closed 0.32% higher at Rs 332.85 on BSE. The clarifications of SBI not taking over Yes Bank even as the latter has announced mega $2 billion fund raising plans.

In the latest quarter, Yes Bank has reported a loss of Rs 600.08 crore on the back of a one-off DTA adjustment of Rs 709 crore on account of change in corporate tax rate regime. Excluding this one-time hit, adjusted profit was Rs 109 crore, Yes Bank said in a statement. This was the second biggest quarterly loss reported by the bank since its listing after Rs 1,506.60 crore loss in March quarter this year. The Gross non-performing assets (GNPA) for the quarter jumped to 7.39 per cent from 5.01 per cent in the June quarter and 1.6 per cent in the year-ago period.