(Reuters) – Shares of private lender Bandhan Bank rose about 10% on Friday after India’s central bank approved the appointment of its new CEO, which analysts said would ensure management stability.
The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday approved the appointment of Partha Pratim Sengupta as CEO and managing director of the bank. He will replace Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, who retired in July.
Sengupta previously held leadership positions at the State Bank of India and was CEO and managing director at state-run Indian Overseas Bank between 2020 and 2022.
Bandhan Bank’s shares rose as much as 9.5% to 205.55 rupees, and were last up 9%.
“Appointment of a PSU banker as CEO provides some stability to an organisation like Bandhan which has witnessed exits in the past year,” Macquarie analyst Suresh Ganapathy said in a note.
Separately, the bank said the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company had completed an audit of loan claims filed by the lender under a guarantee scheme. Post the completion, the remaining claims payout to the bank stood at 3.15 billion rupees ($37.5 million).
The decision provides credibility to the bank, which may use the funds to build provisions for stress loans, adding to its capital base and earnings, Jefferies said in a note.
“We believe the conclusion of the audit, with a relatively clean chit for the bank, will be a breather for the street,” CLSA said.
Macquarie said it believes claims payout implies a 15% upside to its estimate for the bank’s fiscal year 2025 profit, which is currently at 35 billion rupees.
Bandhan Bank, which had seen high bad loan formation over the past two years, said its asset quality degraded with gross non-performing assets ratio rising to 4.23% at the end of June from 3.84% three months earlier.
Its shares have lost about 15% so far this year, compared to about a 7% rise in the broader Nifty bank index.
($1 = 83.9775 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Dimpal Gulwani and Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Varun H K)
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