Morgan Credits Pvt. Ltd, owned by Yes Bank Ltd co-founder Rana Kapoor’s family, has sold a 2.3% stake for Rs 337 crore in the private-sector lender.
Morgan Credits will use the money to pay in advance a portion of its outstanding non-convertible debentures (NCDs) subscribed by Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Company, Yes Bank said in a stock-exchange filing.
It didn’t disclose the identity of the buyer.
Morgan Credits had, in April 2018, placed NCDs worth Rs 1,160 crore with Reliance Nippon to raise funds for incubation of startups. The share sale has helped it repay NCDs worth Rs 722 crore till date, ahead of the maturity date of April 2021.
The sale also helped Yes Bank promoters—Rana Kapoor and Madhu Kapur families—to reduce their stake in the lender to 15.7% from 18%.
Kapoor, whose own stake in Yes Bank now stands at 3.92%, said Morgan Credits is owned by his three daughters and that it sold the stake “with the sole intention” of reducing its debt. The family now owns a 7.4% stake in the bank.
Madhu Kapur’s daughter, Shagun Kapur Gogia, said her family had no plan to reduce or increase its 8.3% stake.
Yes Bank has been under pressure for several months as its asset quality worsened and growth slowed, prompting ratings firm to downgrade the lender and investors to dump its stock. Since April, its shares have plunged 80%.
In August, the bank raised $270 million (Rs 1,920 crore) through a share sale to institutions. Earlier this month, CEO Ravneet Gill said Yes Bank was close to securing a deal to sell a minority stake to a global technology company to help boost its capital.
While Gill didn’t name the potential investor, several media reports said earlier this month that Kapoor had held preliminary talks with Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm owner One97 Communications Ltd, to sell his stake.
