YES Bank shares skid over 3% amid block deal buzz

Shares of YES Bank fell over 3% in early trade on Friday, driven by surge in volume trade amid a report that Carlyle Group looked to offload a 2% stake in the lender through a block deal today. The stake sale is estimated to fetch around ₹1,500 crore to the U.S.-based private equity firm, which currently holds 8.74% shares in YES Bank via CA Basque Investments.

In February this year, Carlyle sold a 1.35% stake, worth around ₹1,056 crore, in YES Bank through open market transactions. CA Basque Investments had then sold 39,00,00,000 shares of the lender at an average price of ₹27.10 per share. CA Basque Investments is a Mauritius-based special purpose vehicle, owned by CA Marans Investments, which is controlled by the funds managed by the affiliates of The Carlyle Group.

Early today, YES Bank shares opened higher at ₹24.85, against the previous closing price of ₹25.44 on the BSE. In the first hour of trade so far, the share price of the private lender fell as much as 3.5% to ₹24.55, while the market capitalisation dipped to ₹72,550 crore. The counter witnessed strong volume with 2.74 crore shares changing hands over the counter as compared to the two-week average of 3.95 lakh scrips.

YES Bank shares touched its 52-week high of ₹32.81 on February 9. 2024, while it hit a 52-week low of ₹14.10 on October 23, 2023. The largecap banking stock has risen 57% in a year; 54% in six months; and 12% in the calendar year 2024. The counter has declined nearly 1% in the past one month, while it corrected nearly 4% in a week. 

Last week, YES Bank released its earnings report, which topped Street estimates. For the fourth quarter ended March 2024, YES Bank reported a net profit of ₹452 crore, up 123.2% against ₹202 crore in the same period last year. Sequentially, the profit was up 95.2% from ₹231 crore in the December quarter of FY24.

The net interest income (NII) grew 2.3% to ₹2,153 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared to ₹2,105 crore in the corresponding period last year. On quarter-on-quarter, the NII rose 6.8% from ₹2,017 crore in Q3 FY24. The non-interest income was up 56.3% YoY and 31.3% QoQ at ₹1,569 crore during the quarter under review. The total income climbed to ₹3,722 crore in the March quarter of FY24, up 19.7% YoY and 15.9% QoQ.

On the asset quality front, the gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) improved to 1.7% from 2% in Q3 FY24 and 2.2% in Q4 FY23. In a similar trend, the net non-performing assets (NNPAs) also declined to 0.6% from 0.9% in the previous quarter and 0.8% in the same period last year. The provision cost (non-tax) was at ₹471 crore for Q4 FY24, down 23.8% YoY and 15.1% QoQ.

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