Private sector lender Axis Bank reported its first net loss, of Rs 21.8 billion, for the quarter ended March as non-performing assets (NPAs) soared and provisions for bad loans surged three times over the corresponding quarter last year.

The results were well below Street expectations on most key parameters, including profits.

Mumbai: Axis Bank on Friday said it had started the process of appointing a successor to managing director and CEO Shikha Sharma.

Earlier this month, Sharma had requested the board of the private sector lender that her tenure be curtailed.

Stocks took a breather today after nine sessions of gains owing to a rush among investors to book profits towards the fag-end amid sustained foreign fund outflows even as global cues were positive.

The BSE Sensex, after resuming higher at 34,443.42, advanced to hit a high of 34,591.81 on buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) as well as retail participants.

Axis Bank, which has the largest exposure to Echanda Urja Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd, has sold part of its loans to government-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and Central Bank of India in 2017-18, in a bid to reduce exposure in the company.

With this, Axis Bank has reduced its exposure in Echanda Urja by Rs 2 billion to below Rs 3 billion, and the rest of the debt will also be sold in due course, said a source close to the development.

Axis Bank is likely to appoint global executive search firm Egon Zehnder to find a successor to its managing director and chief executive officer Shikha Sharma, who will step down at the end of the year, sources close to the development told FE.

“The board is likely to consider both external candidates as well as senior officials from within the bank. Egon Zehnder is expected to manage the succession,” a source said on condition of anonymity.

Shikha Sharma, Axis Bank managing director and chief executive officer (MD & CEO), has decided to step down. She was to start her fourth three-year term on June 1.

The move comes in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asking the private sector lender’s board to reconsider its decision to reappoint Sharma for a three-year term starting June.

Mumbai: In her eight years and 10 months at the helm of Axis Bank Ltd, Shikha Sharma has managed to change the private sector bank’s image as a corporate lender by expanding its retail base, besides making key acquisitions.

After spending nearly three decades at ICICI Group across the bank, investment banking and insurance arm, Sharma took over as Axis Bank’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) in June 2009.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked Axis Bank’s board to reconsider the decision to re-appoint Shikha Sharma as managing director and chief executive officer for a fourth term, amid concerns over rising bad loans at the private sector lender, sources said.

The move comes against the backdrop of persisting concerns over mounting non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking sector.

MUMBAI: RBI is understood to have raised some queries regarding the Axis Bank board's proposal to reappoint Shikha Sharma as MD & CEO for a fresh term beginning June 2018. The queries come more than eight months after the board approved Sharma's reappointment, following a board approval.

Mumbai: Axis Bank has refused to comment on reports of resignation by two senior executives — deputy MD V Srinivasan and head of corporate and transaction banking Sidharth Rath — on grounds that they are speculative. The bank also did not comment on reports that it has hired S M Sundaresan, head of corporate banking at Standard Chartered, as head of corporate banking.

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