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Below the Event Update on RBI approves Mr. Anup Saha as MD&CEO for 3 years - PL Capital.

Quick Pointers

* He was previously with BAF for 8 years & ICICIB for 14 years

* This is a positive for KMB given his retail lending experience

* Excess capital, gold/unsecured strategy are key issues

Mr. Anup Saha receives RBI approval to be appointed as MD & CEO for 3-years, w.e.f. 1 st Jan’27. Having joined KMB in Jan’26, he is an Executive Director (since Mar’26) overseeing retail banking, data analytics and marketing. Mr. Saha’s work experience spans over 32 years with 25 years in retail/MSME lending. Prior to joining KMB, he spent over 8 years at BAF before which he worked in ICICIBC for 14 years. He is a B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur & MBA from IIM Lucknow. Given his strong retail lending experience, we view Mr. Saha’s appointment as positive since it would suggest continuity as he has spent 9 months with KMB. Following issues would need consideration (1) use of surplus capital (~22% CET-1) that is driving sub-optimal RoE (~11%) despite superior RoA (~1.9%) (2) strategy on gold loans as market share is not meaningful (3) declining share of unsecured loans. We keep multiple at 2.0x but increase TP to INR500 from INR480 as we roll forward to Sep’28 core ABV. Retain ‘BUY’.

Mr. Anup Kumar Saha receives RBI approval as MD & CEO: The RBI, vide its letter dated 30th Sep’26, has approved the appointment of Mr. Anup Kumar Saha as MD & CEO of KMB for a 3-year period, w.e.f. 1 st Jan’27. The Board of Directors will undertake necessary formalities and seek members’ approval for this appointment. Mr. Saha joined KMB in Jan’26 and has been working as a whole-time director (executive) since Mar’26. He is overseeing the functions of retail banking, data analytics and marketing.

Seasoned financial services professional: Mr. Saha has 32+ years’ experience, including 25 years in banking and non-banking financial services. Prior to joining KMB, he spent over 8 years at Bajaj Finance, where he held senior roles across consumer finance, MSME, marketing, operations and digital platform and culminated as MD & CEO. Earlier, he spent 14 years at ICICIBC, leading businesses including retail secured assets, business intelligence, retail & rural collections, credit cards and retail structured finance. He also worked with GE Capital and BHEL. He has completed B.Tech, Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and is an MBA from IIM Lucknow.

Chairman & outgoing MD&CEO confident of Mr. Saha’s leadership: Proposed leadership transition has received strong endorsement from the Chairman, Mr. C. S. Rajan, and the outgoing MD & CEO, Mr. Ashok Vaswani, who expressed confidence in Mr. Saha’s ability to lead the Bank’s next phase of growth. His experience across retail banking, consumer finance, digital platform, analytics and operations would provide a broad leadership base for KMB’s focus on deepening customer relationships and driving sustainable growth.

PL Capital view: Stakeholders were expecting Mr. Saha to be Mr. Vaswani’s successor since he was elevated to the position of an Executive Director. While execution remains a key, issues that may need consideration are (1) better loan growth than current runrate of 14-16% given high capital adequacy (22% CET-1) (2) strategy on gold loans as market share is not meaningful (3) plan for the unsecured segment since gold credit is cannibalizing unsecured loans and (4) utilization of surplus capital that is driving suboptimal RoE (~11%) despite superior RoA (~1.9%).

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