United Bank to sell bad loans worth Rs.300 crore

Kolkata, Nov 12 (IANS) State-run United Bank of India (UBI) is in talks with several asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) to sell bad loans worth Rs.200-300 crore by the end of the current financial year, a bank official said Monday.

“We have identified some 70 accounts worth Rs.200 crore to Rs.300 crore for offloading to ARCs. We will float tenders and invite bids for these accounts,” United Bank of India Executive Director Deepak Narang told newspersons here.

Narang said the bank was currently looking for the right kind of prices for these stressed assets.

The bank is also emphasising on its recovery mechanism to bring down its gross non-performing assets (NPAs) to 3.25 percent by the fiscal-end from 3.88 percent during the second quarter of the current fiscal.

Narang said that the Kolkata-headquartered bank has set a target of achieving a total cash recovery, including the proceeds from the sale of the bad loans, of Rs.450 crore to Rs.500 crore by the end of the financial year.

It was also planning to restructure loans worth Rs.300 crore to Rs.400 crore in the next two quarters, he added.

IANS 2012-11-12 21:22:11