Gtb Picks Up 13% Stake In Ketan Firm

Global Trust Bank (GTB) has acquired a 13.18 per cent stake in Ketan Parekh group company Triumph International Finance India Ltd, the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

A senior GTB official told Business Standard that the bank currently has a loan exposure of Rs 180 crore to group firms of the former bull operator, Ketan Parekh, and is moving to take possession of the securities pledged with it, a senior official of GTB said.

Triumph International Finance India said in the BSE notice that GTB Ltd has acquired 9,88,790 of its equity shares on August 30 in "the ordinary course of business by exercising of rights as pledge".

GTB, which had an exposure of around Rs 250 crore to the stock broker in April 2001, has been able to recover some Rs 50 crore since the stock market scam surfaced in March 2001. The bank's loan exposure to the group includes that to its non-banking finance and investment companies.

The value of the securities held by the bank against the exposure to the group has come down substantially as the stock market never recovered after the scam came to light. The downturn in the capital market has left a gap, the bank said, and pointed out that any gap in realisation was well within its capabilities to absorb.

GTB chairman & managing director R S Hugar had in April this year said that for the current year, the exposure level of GTB had been brought down to 11 per cent from 15 per cent last year when the bank's links with Parekh were exposed.

He added that the bank would strive to further bring down the exposure to five per cent.

The bank has already started selling the Ketan Parekh group's collaterals in small lots.