PNB invites bids to sell 3 NPA accounts to recover over Rs 1.36 bn

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has put on sale three non-performing assets to recover Rs 1.36 billion dues from the borrowers.

"We intend to place these accounts for sale to ARCs/ NBFCs/other banks/FIs on the terms and conditions stipulated in the bank's policy, in line with the regulatory guidelines," PNB said in the invite for expression.

The three non-performing accounts (NPAs) or bad loans that have been put on sale are Gwalior Jhansi Expressways with an outstanding of Rs 550 million; SVS Buildcon Pvt Ltd Rs 500 million and Shiva Texfabs Ltd Rs 310.6 million.

The process of e-bidding for the sale of these accounts will happen on July 7, 2018, the bank said.

All the public sector lenders (PSBs), who account for the highest amount of bad loans of the banking industry, have stepped up measures to recover dues from bad assets.

The NPA in the banking sector stood at Rs 8.31 trillion as of December 2017.

Apart from referring potential NPA cases to the Insolvency and Bankturty Code (IBC), the banks are also selling off their non-core assets to improve on their balance sheets.

Earlier in April also, the second largest public sector lender PNB had invited bids to sell three NPA accounts Shree Sidhbali Ispat Ltd (Meerut) with non-performing loans of (Rs 1.65 billion), Sri Guruprabha Power Ltd (Chennai) Rs 315.2 billion and Dharamnath Investment (Mumbai) Rs 176.3 million to recover dues.

The cumulative loss of public sector banks crossed a whopping Rs 873.57 billion in the 2017-18 fiscal, with scam-tainted Punjab National Bank topping the chart with a hit of nearly Rs 122.83 billion followed by IDBI Bank.

Out of 21 state-owned banks, only two -- Indian Bank and Vijaya Bank -- posted profits during the fiscal ended March 2018.

PNB, which is reeling under over Rs 140-billion scam allegedly perpetrated by Nirav Modi and associates, posted a net loss of Rs 122.82 billion last fiscal. In 2016-17, the Delhi-headquartered bank had posted a profit of Rs 13.24 billion.