Private sector lender Yes Bank posted a whopping ₹1,507 crore loss during the Jan.-March period of 2018-19, as bad loans surged due to its exposure to troubled firms like Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS) and an airline company. The bank, however, has refrained from naming the airline.

The lender posted a ₹1,179-crore profit during the same period of the previous financial year. This is the first quarterly results under the new MD & CEO Ravneet Gill, who replaced Rana Kapoor, the co-founder of the bank. Mr. Kapoor’s three-year extension proposal was not approved by the Reserve Bank of India.

Gross slippages to bad loans in the fourth quarter was ₹3,481 crore, of which ₹552 crore was on account of an airline company exposure that was performing as on March 31, 2019, the bank said.

In various group companies and special purpose vehicles of IL&FS, the lender had an exposure of ₹2,528 crore as of March 31, 2019, of which ₹2,442 crore was classified as NPA.

“₹86 crore continues to be classified as ‘standard’ in line with the NCLAT order dated February 25, 2019. The bank has a provision of 15% against this standard exposure,” Yes Bank said.

As a result, provisioning during the quarter jumped to ₹3661.7 crore as compared to ₹399.64 crore reported during the same period of the previous year.

Gross NPAs of the lender jumped to ₹7882.56 crore as on March-end, which was 3.22% of the gross advances, as compared to ₹2,626.80 core a year ago (1.28%) and ₹5,158.62 crore (2.1%) at the end of December.

The lender reported a net interest income growth of 16.3% to ₹2,506 crore in Q4FY19, while net interest margin was at 3.1% during the period under review.

“In this phase of our journey, we will lay emphasis on granularity, sustainability and digitalisation while maintaining highest standards on compliance and prudence in risk. Importantly, we will continue expanding our corporate business which is the foundation on which YES Bank has been built,” Ravneet Gill, managing director and CEO of YES Bank, said.

The bank reported a loan growth of 18.7% year-on-year, though it contracted 1% sequentially. Deposits grew by 13.4% on year of which retail deposits grew by 40.2%.

Gogia on board

The bank has appointed Shagun Kapur Gogia, the daughter of the late Ashok Kapur, who co-founded the bank with Rana Kapoor and Ravinder Kumar Khanna, to the board. The decision to appoint Ms. Gogia comes after a long legal battle that the late Ashok Kapur’s family was fighting for a board seat for Ms. Gogia.