YES Bank director resigns alleging governance concerns

The chairman of the audit committee at embattled YES Bank Uttam Prakash Agarwal has resigned from the board of the company, charging CEO Ravneet Gill of misleading the investors over the fundraising issue.

“There are serious concerns as regards deteriorating standards of the corporate governance, failure of compliance, management practices and the manner in which the state of affairs of the Company are being conducted by Ravneet Gill- MD/ CEO, Rajiv Ubeoi- Senior Group President Governance and Controls, Sanjay Nambiar- Legal Head and Board of Directors,” Agarwal said in his resignation letter – a copy of which has been uploaded on BSE.

In his resignation Agarwal has also attached his dissent note on the capital raising campaign. The bank has been dilly dallying on the fund-raising plans over past three months, despite serious concerns over the bank’s financial health. DH was the first to report that the major fund houses that the bank has approached had declined to grant any fund infusion to the bank.

“I have raised my concerns on these very critical matters from time to time in the overall interest of Yes Bank Ltd., and millions of its small and large depositors, investors, shareholders and all other stakeholders. I have left no stone unturned to discharge my duties and thus wrote a letter detailing all these matters in the attached letter dated January 9, 2020 (which is submitted to all the regulatory authorities),” he further said in his resignation letter.

During the board meeting on Friday, the board okayed the plans to raise Rs 10,000 crore through debt and equity.

“The board has approved raising of funds upto Rs. 10,000 Crore, in one or more h·anches, on such terms and conditions as it may deem fit, by way of issuance of securities including but not limited through Qualified Institutions Placement (QIP)/ Global Depository Receipts (GDRs)/ American Depository Receipts (ADRs)/ Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs)/ or any other methods on private placement basis,” the company said, without disclosing the names of the investors.

Regarding the $500 million investment offer by the Citax Holdings and Citax Investment Group, the bank said that it will take up the offer on the next board meeting, as “conditions” in the Friday’s board meeting didn’t permit it to take up the offer.

However, the Board has decided not to proceed with the $1.2 billion (around Rs 8,000 crore) offer of Canadian investor Erwin Singh Braich.