Non-bank lenders’ audit may deepen co-founder’s worries
MUMBAI: Yes Bank Ltd co-founder Rana Kapoor and some of his family members were involved in related-party transactions and circular trading with Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL) and two other non-bank lenders, showed forensic audits of these lenders.
According to a forensic audit of DHFL by KPMG India, the mortgage lender sold debentures worth ₹3,700 crore to Yes Bank during April-June 2018. During the same period, DHFL had issued a loan against property of ₹600 crore to Doit Urban Ventures India Ltd, which till March 26, 2018 was a wholly owned subsidiary of RAB Enterprise India Ltd, which is owned by Bindu Kapoor, wife of Kapoor. In June 2018, when DHFL sold non-convertible debentures, nearly 25% or ₹2,700 crore was subscribed by Yes Bank alone.
Similarly, a forensic audit of Reliance Home Finance Ltd by Grant Thornton India, revealed that the company gave a loan of ₹60 crore to Bliss House Pvt. Ltd in April 2018, which was used to repay an existing loan worth ₹60 crore, which RAB Enterprise had borrowed in March 2017. Bliss House is a unit of RAB Enterprise.
A separate forensic audit of Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd showed that it had lent ₹125 crore to Imagine Estate Pvt. Ltd on April 18, 2018, which was used to repay an existing loan of RAB Enterprise, which was taken on November 2017. Imagine Estate is a subsidiary of RAB.
Mint has reviewed parts of these forensic audit reports.
In November 2019, Mint reported that Yes Bank allegedly lent over ₹2,000 crore to several companies linked to the Indiabulls Group that either have negative net worth or an average equity capital of ₹1 lakh. These companies include Airmid Aviation Services Ltd, Tupelo Constructions Pvt. Ltd, Tupelo Land Development Pvt. Ltd, Paidia Conconnection Pvt. Ltd, Viswamukha Properties Pvt. Ltd, Paidia Softinfo Pvt. Ltd, Keysha Mining Pvt. Ltd and Bobinar Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.
These loans were repaid by the Indiabulls Group by January 2019; however, the grant of over ₹2,000 crore loans to firms with so little equity could raise suspicions of lax due diligence by the bank. The last loan to be repaid was in Airmid Aviation where the charge was satisfied on January 7, showed data by the Registrar of Companies.