After profit beat, Yes Bank seeks RBS retail booster

Yes Bank is interested in buying the Royal Bank of Scotland Group’s India retail assets to speed up growth, Rana Kapoor, CEO, said. after announcing a 34.7% jump in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday.

“It is an important strategic decision should that crystallise because of the urge to augment retail banking strategy and also help us acquire some very good well trained people who we will believe would be a very good cultural fit in our bank,” said Kapoor.

Retail and small & medium scale businesses currently contribute only about 13.5% to the bank’s Rs43,857 crore loan book.

Kapoor said one-time book value would be more than enough to pay for the RBS assets, but added Yes Bank is yet to begin due-diligence.

RBS was in talks with Hong kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) to sell its retail and commercial businesses for more than two years before the deal fell through in December on valuation issues.

Yes Bank posted a third-quarter net profit of Rs342.3 crore, up 34.7% from corresponding quarter last year. Net interest margin expanded 20 basis points to 3%, mainly driven by increasing proportion of cheaper current account and savings account (CASA) deposits, which now stand at 18.3% of total deposits.

It expects margins to expand to 3.5% once the bank has 30% of deposits coming in the form of current-account savings account.