Rana Kapoor sells 2.3% stake in YES Bank

Morgan Credit held a 3.03 per cent stake in YES Bank prior to this sale as part of the promoter group holding. With MCPL stake sale, the promoter group ownership in YES Bank will fall to 15.7 per cent from 18 per cent earlier.

Morgan Credits said the proceeds will be used to prepay a portion of outstanding non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of MCPL subscribed by various schemes of Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Company (RNAM).

The promoter company in April 2018 had placed NCDs worth Rs1,160 crore with RNAM.

With the share sale, the promoter group of YES Bank prepaid NCDs worth Rs722 crore till date, ahead of maturity date of April 2021.

"This sale was effected purely to deleverage the debt of this entity. The Board of Directors of YES Bank would like to state that the financial position of the Bank is sound and stable, its operating performance continues to be robust and its growth plans stay firmly on track," the company said in a BSE filing.

Rana Kapoor, co-promoter, YES Bank, said, “Decided to bring down our family ownership in YES Bank to 7.4 percent with the sole intention of reducing debt.

Radha Kapoor-Khanna, director of MCPL and Kapoor’s daughter, said: “We have concluded the stake sale solely to de-leverage MCPL. Through the prepayment of NCDs of RNAM, we have significantly reduced our borrowing in MCPL in an accelerated manner.”

Morgan Credits (MCPL) had issued two NCDs of Rs 950 crore and Rs 210 crore in April and July 2018 respectively to raise growth capital for various businesses incubated by MPCL. Of this, MCPL prepaid/repurchased Rs210 crore NCD tranche entirely on 27 November 2018, another Rs150 crore from the Rs950 crore NCD tranche between March and June 2019. The outstanding NCDs then stood at Rs800 crore.

The Yes Bank stock rose as much as 6.5 per cent to Rs57.70 on the BSE in early Friday trade.