I raised JK Bank profit by 2300%, Drabu only 25%: Khan

‘Haseeb Drabu is distorting facts and figures, telling lies to media’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Sep 4: Former Chairman of the Jammu & Kashmir bank Ltd (JKB), Mohammad Yousaf Khan, today said that the recently dismissed chief executive of the bank, Haseeb Drabu, was doling out lies to highlight his performance in the last five years. He disputed most of the figures released, of late, to extol Drabu and claimed that JKB had witnessed 800% to 2300% growth in all the key portfolios in 1996-2004 period and a paltry 25% to 100% during Drabu’s period as Chairman from 2005 to 2010.

Addressing a crowded news conference here today, Khan said that his sentiments had been hurt by Drabu. “It is said that the tenure of Dr Haseeb Drabu has witnessed major focus on J&K State in which the bank in the last five years has raised its credit portfolio in J&K state from Rs.1200 Cr in 2005 to Rs.12000 Cr in 2010. This is a total lie as the credit portfolio as on March 2005 was roughly 5000 Cr and not 1200 Cr”, Khan asserted.

Drau had claimed to have raised the bank’s credit portfolio in J&K from Rs 1200 Cr in 2005 to Rs 12000 Cr in 2010. He had also claimed that during his tenure, bank’s profit increased phenomenally from Rs 100 Cr in 2005 to Rs 650 Cr in 2010. Khan said that the bank’s profit stood at meager Rs 18 Cr when he took over in 1996. He said it witnessed a meteoric rise of 2300% during his tenure and reached Rs 400 Cr when he reached superannuation in 2004. He claimed that during Drabu’s term of 5 years, JKB’s profit hiked by just 25%, from Rs 400 Cr in 2005 to Rs 510 Cr in 2010.

“Subsequent to the financial year 2003-04, in which the bank posted a net profit of Rs.406 Cr, whole banking industry witnessed tremors of inflation and hardening of interest rates which besides impacting the yields also depreciated the investment portfolio of all banks. The banks all over the country witnessed a tremendous fall in their profitability. And J&K Bank could not remain insulated to these adversaries. But, despite all the adversities in the financial markets especially tremendous fall in the market value of the government securities, I could have easily booked a net profit of Rs.350 Cr for the said financial year (2004-05). But I didn’t. I did a provisioning of Rs.250 Cr in order to insulate the securities portfolio from future market risk and to reduce the duration of its investment portfolio. This I simply did for my successor so that he would be able to absorb the future market shock”, Khan said. He claimed that during that year no other bank in the country did provisioning for treating the government securities market to market. All other banks did the provisioning in the next financial year.

Khan also disputed Drabu’s figures and said that it was during his term as Chairman that the bank’s NPA came down from 13% in 1996 to 1.40% in 2004-05. He said that if at all Drabu was correct in his claim, he had actually brought the NPA down from 1.40% to zero percent.

“When I took over reigns of the bank, the net profit was just 18 crore and it zoomed to Rs.406 crore in the year 2003-04. Business turnover increased from Rs.4200 Cr in 1996 to Rs.37000 Cr in 2004-05. Credit portfolio witnesses an increase from Rs.1364 Cr to Rs.11500 Cr and deposits of the bank increased from Rs.2895 in 1996 to Rs.21644 Cr in 2004-05”, Khan said. He added that during his term he made J&K Bank as the first company in J&K which ventured into the equity market. According to his, when he introduced the venture, JKB’s share value was fixed at Rs 38 and it crossed Rs 400 mark with a phenomenal increase of 1000% in just 4 years. He also gave a detailed comparison of his performance with that of Haseeb Drabu’s which is as under:-

Comparison of performance

M Y Khan’s tenure                                               Haseeb Drabu’s tenure

A. BUSIINESS TURNOVER

1996: Rs 4200 Cr                                                   2005: Rs 37000 Cr

2005: Rs 37000 Cr (900 % increase)                      2010: Rs  60000 Cr (100% increase)



B. ADVANCES

1996: Rs 1364 Cr                                                   2005: Rs 11517 Cr

2005: Rs 11517 Cr (900 % growth)                       2010: Rs  23057 Cr (100% growth)



C. DEPOSITS

1996: Rs  2895 Cr                                                 2005: Rs  21645 Cr

2005: Rs  21645 Cr (800% growth)                       2010: Rs  37237 Cr (90%growth)



D. SHARE PRICE

1999:  Rs. 38                                                         2005:  Rs. 400

2005:  Rs. 400/- (1000% increase)                        2010 Rs. 800 (100% increase)





E. NETWORTH

1996: Rs 140 Cr                                                   2005: Rs 1660 Cr

2005: Rs 1660 Cr (1100% increase)                    2010: Rs 3010 Cr (100% increase)



F. PROFIT

1996:  Rs 18 Cr                                                    2005: Rs  400 Cr

2005 : 400 Cr (2300% increase)                           2010: Rs 510 cr (25% increase)

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