Rana Kapoor's daughters criticise sale of pledged YES Bank shares
YES Bank shares rose sharply after senior management provided clarifications on fundraising efforts and capital raising by the Bank. The CEO Ravneet Gill noted that the bank is raising upto $1.2 billion in capital from equity funds, family firms and other entites, and expects fundraise to be completed earlier than expected. YES Bank spoke to analysts amid a press release from Rana Kapoor's daughters, which criticized what it considered the premature sales of pledged promoter shares by Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management (RNAM). They noted that RNAM "invoked and sold all our balance pledged promoter shares from Morgan Credits Private Limited (MCPL) and Yes Capital India Private Limited (YCPL) in the open market." "These were shares pledged by our father, Mr. Rana Kapoor," the sisters wrote, "to support the borrowings of MCPL, a company owned by his three daughters for investing in start-up ventures in our capacity as Women Entrepreneurs. The proceeds from the sale are being appropriated towards prepaying the balance outstanding NCDs of MCPL subscribed by RNAM, thus bringing the leverage down to negligible levels." The total prepayments (including accrued interest) to RNAM by MCPL is approximately Rs 1,145 cr well before the due date of April 2021." "We are highly dejected that our family shareholding in YES Bank was sold at such dismal price levels", they added, "despite the Bank having created long-term shareholder value and over 20,000 jobs during the last 15 years." Post the sales of shares, YCPL's shareholding in YES Bank has fallen below 1%.03-10-2019