Ravneet Gill took charge as Yes Bank head, have to get shareholders' nod

Ravneet Gill took charge as the managing director and chief executive of Yes Bank Friday, succeeding promoter Rana Kapoor, whose term was cut short by the Reserve Bank last year. The Reserve Bank has approved the term of Gill, who used to head German lender Deutsche Bank's country operations, for a period of three years.

His appointment will now have to get shareholders' nod at the next annual general meeting later this year, the bank said in a regulatory filing. The Reserve Bank has not publicly spelt out reasons for curtailing Kapoor's term by over two years last September.

The bank's board had unsuccessfully sought an extension till September 2019. The midsized private sector lender had appointed non-executive director Ajai Kumar, who had led state-run Syndicate Bank in the past, as the interim MD and CEO for a month till Gill takes charge.

The aggressive and temperamental Kapoor, who had stints with foreign lenders earlier, launched the bank along with his co-brother Ashok Kapur in early 2000s. Kapur was killed in the 26/11 terror attack and a bitter feud ensued between Kapoor and Kapur's heirs which played out in the courts. The two warring groups of promoters who collectively own around 20 per cent of the bank, however, reached a truce by agreeing to appoint one non-independent director each on the board.

It has been widely speculated if the RBI's action of Kapoor was due to the regulatory audit finding out that the bank under-reporting NPAs by a cumulative Rs 10,000 crore for two consecutive years. According to sources, the RBI had cited "serious lapses" in governance and a "poor compliance culture" at Yes Bank as reasons for its "regulatory discomfort" in allowing Kapoor to continue to head the lender.

The bank has displayed "highly irregular" credit management practices, the regulator had said. Kumar continues as a non-executive non-independent director and other members of the board are Brahm Dutt, part-time chairman; Mukesh Sabharwal independent director; Subhash Chander Kalia, non-executive non independent director; and Pratima Sheorey, independent director.

Four additional (independent) directors are -- Uttam Prakash Agarwal, TS Vijayan, Maheswar Sahu and Anil Jaggia. Investors cheered Gill's entry into the corner office, and the bank scrip closed 2.68 per cent up at Rs 237.40 a piece on the BSE, as against 0.55 per cent gains on the benchmark.