Turnaround Strategy

When 60-year-old Sandeep Bakhshi was pulled out from ICICI Prudential in early 2018 and asked to head ICICI Bank, the country’s second-largest private sector bank was facing multiple challenges. One was instability due to the exit of Chanda Kochhar. Second was high level of non-performing assets or NPAs. Bakhshi, who grew up in a defence family, hopping from one school to another, was quick to adapt to the situation. In a little over two years, he has delivered results.

Return on assets has jumped from 0.43 per cent to 1.70 per cent. Net non-performing assets (NPAs) are down from 3.65 per cent to 0.63 per cent with substantial NPA provisioning. Capital adequacy is close to 20 per cent as against 9 per cent mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. The share price has almost