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Articles Published by Hemindra Hazari

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The deadline (December 31, 2018) for Uday Kotak, the founder-CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB), to dilute his stake to 20% has come and gone, and shareholders await the wrath of the banking regulator. The regulator had already given an extended time line for the founders to reduce their stake, a...
In an unprecedented act, Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) on December 10, 2018 filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court against the Reserve Bank of India. The writ prayed for permission to include its preference capital (a debt instrument) issue in paid-up capital, thereby lowering the stake of the promoters...
For the last 5 years, the profitability of HDFC Bank, India’s largest bank by market capitalisation, has declined even though its critical net interest margin (NIM) has remained constant. Interestingly, to maintain its pristine margin, the bank has focused on taking on more risk in the form of unsecured retail loans. Such a...
Mumbai: It is the season of resignations for the independent directors of India Inc’s corporate boards. The recent stormy exit of R. Chandrashekhar from the board of Yes Bank caught the media’s attention, after which the private sector lender had to issue an apology to the stock exchanges and retract its earlier statement that his resignation was...
Claudius, in Hamlet, noted that “When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” He could well have been speaking about the woes of Yes Bank shareholders. The last few months, and in particular November, have been a punch in the gut to owners of the stock. On November 14,...
Leadership is unravelling at Yes Bank and the stock is tanking. In the dark hours of November 14, the bank announced the immediate resignations of Ashok Chawla, its non-executive, independent chairman, and Vasant Gujarathi, an independent director and head of its important audit committee.  The directors of Yes Bank appear to have joined the...
The unseemly public jostling between India’s central bank and the government of India casts a poor light on both institutions.  Adhering to unrealistic fiscal deficit constraints has compelled the government to plunder public institutions such as the Life Insurance Corporation of India, ONGC and now the Reserve Bank of...
Romesh Sobti, CEO, Indusind Bank, is a veteran banker with 43 years’ experience. He recently went on record to defend the bank’s substantial bridge loan to the fast-collapsing IL&FS, a systemically important non-deposit-taking core investment company. Sadly, he found this writer’s earlier insight on Indusind to be “nasty” and...
Indusind Bank, one of the stock market darlings and foreign investor favourites, startled the capital market with a mere 5% rise in net earnings. Earnings rose to Rs 9.2 bn for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 (2QFY2019), as compared with the consensus estimate of Rs 11 bn. This was on account...
The quality and intellectual calibre of the former directors of insolvent IL&FS was revealed to all when an anonymous former director and ex-member of its risk management committee of the board went on record with a Business Standard journalist to justify the incompetence of the board. Such conduct may...