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Bloomberg
The Indian lender that’s been most hurt by a yearlong shadow banking crisis in the nation is getting a reprieve after a local media report that it’s in early talks to sell a stake to an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd-backed company.
Shares of Yes Bank jumped as much as 8.5 percent on Wednesday. While the lender is the worst performer on the key Sensex and Nifty indexes in 2019, the move has pared its loss this year to 63 percent. Its 2023 dollar bonds rose for the sixth day, set for a record winning streak.
Alibaba-backed One97 Communications Ltd is in talks to buy Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor’s 9.6 percent stake in the lender, PTI reported on Wednesday.
Report on the stake sale comes at a time when the Mumbai-based lender is struggling to raise funds to bolster its balance sheets.
Rating companies from India Ratings & Research Ltd to Moody’s Investors Service have downgraded credit profile of the bank in recent weeks, citing concerns about its capital buffers and its ability to raise funds. A spokeswoman for the lender declined to comment on the PTI report.