Rana Kapoor was feeling emotional.
The Yes Bank co-founder, who is preparing to hand over the reins of the Indian lender at the behest of the Reserve Bank of India, had just learned that the wife of his late co-founder Ashok Kapur had sold some of her stake in the bank on the open market.
So he took to Twitter.
“Even after I demit office as MD & CEO of Yes BANK, I will never ever sell my @YesBANK shares,” he tweeted.
“I will eventually bequeath my @YesBANK Promoter shares to my three daughters and subsequently to their children, with a request in my Will stating not to sell a single share, as Diamonds are Forever!!”
Passionate response
There is a fair bit more in this vein, but no other part of the sequence compares his bank shares to a 1971 James Bond film and a Shirley Bassey song.
Kapoor can perhaps be forgiven a somewhat passionate response to a private citizen selling a reported 0.04% of her stake (according to the Economic Times), for he has had a rough trot lately.
Yes Bank has been asked to explain allegations that Kapoor’s family office – managed by his daughters – has been running a parallel lending business compromising the bank’s best interests.
The bank has denied it, but the stock is off 37% since September 19, the day the Reserve Bank asked the lender to find another leader.
Diamonds might be for ever, but market capitalization apparently isn’t.