Old loans are usually forgotten, but IDFC First Bank CEO V Vaidyanathan seems to return them — with interest.
IDFC First Bank CEO V Vaidyanathan has gifted IDFC First bank shares worth Rs. 2 crore to an Air Force officer who’d once lent him Rs. 1000. Wing Commander Sampath Kumar had loaned Vaidyanathan Rs. 1000 a long time ago, but before Vaidyanathan could pay it back, the two had lost touch. The two reconnected after the soldier’s family reached out to him after reading a media article. Vaidyanathan ended up giving Rs. 2 crore to the air force veteran, which would help in his medical treatment.
In a disclosure to the stock markets, Vaidyanathan categorized the gift to the Wing Commander as “assistance to senior citizen for providing support earlier in life”. Vaidyanathan also donated shares worth Rs. 40 lakh to one Sameer Mhatre towards “house purchase assistance”, and shares worth Rs. 60 lakh to Master Mayank Mrinal Ghosh as “financial security to kin due to bereavement of colleague”. He also gifted shares worth Rs. 2.15 crore to one A Kanojia for “house purchase assistance”, and shares worth Rs. 40 lakh to one Manoj Sahay under the simple heading “friend”.
This isn’t the first time that the IDFC First Bank CEO has been generous in gifting away his bank’s shares. In 2018, he had gifted shares worth Rs. 15 crore among his drivers, maids and employees. Two of Vembu’s drivers had got shares valued at Rs. 31 lakh each, as did three of maids. He had also gifted shares worth Rs. 50 lakh each to 26 of his current and former employees.
In 2020, Vaidyanathan had gifted shares worth Rs. 30 lakh to his former maths teacher. When he was a student, Vaidyanathan had qualified for an engineering course at Birla Institute of Technology (Mesra) but did not have the money to travel there to give the interview and complete the counselling formalities. To help him out, his then math teacher Gurdial Saini lent him Rs 500. Vaidyanathan seemingly repaid the Rs. 500 debt with a Rs. 30 lakh gift several decades later.
Vaidyanathan had started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 42 when he was the MD of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. In 2010, he’d bought a 10% stake in Future Capital, and secured equity backing of Rs. 800 crore from Warburg Pincus, and rebranded the company as Capital First. Capital First was listed on stock exchanges, and provided loans to business entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises and Indian consumers. Capital First had merged with IDFC Bank, and he’d then become the CEO of the combined entity named IDFC First bank. Vaidyanathan currently owns a 1% stake in IDFC First which is estimated to be worth around Rs. 550 crore.