UCO Bank looks at recovery of Rs 4,000 cr this fiscal

State-run lender UCO Bank, which is aspiring to be back in profit, is aiming at recovery of bad loans of around Rs. 4,000 crore during the current fiscal, its MD and CEO R.K. Takkar said on Wednesday.

The Kolkata-headquartered lender is hopeful of making net profit and coming out of the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the next two years, he said.

"We are looking at various avenues -- main is recovery. Our PCR (Provisioning Coverage Ratio) is quite healthy at more than 60 per cent. So, once NCLT resolutions happen, either through OTS (one-time settlement) or normal recovery channels, it will help us not only reducing our NPAs but also writing back the provisions and booking some profit, depending on how much haircut we will have to take," he said.

The lender has exposures to nine of the 12 large stressed accounts, identified by the Reserve Bank of India to get resolved under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

The bank's overall exposure to these nine accounts was around Rs 4,300 crore.

"All these 12 accounts are in the advance stages of resolution proceedings. For Bhushan Steel and Electrosteel Steels, we have already received the money. In Bhushan Steel case, our bank has to take around 35 per cent haircut," Takkar said after the bank's 15th Annual General Meeting here.

"We expect to come out of PCA and register profit in the next two years," he said.

The major focus of the bank was to reduce non-performing assets (NPAs) and check further slippages, he told shareholders at the meeting.

The RBI had initiated a PCA against the bank in May last year in view of high non-performing assets and negative return on assets.

Its gross non-performing assets, in absolute term, went up to Rs 30,549.92 crore as on March 31, 2018, over 35 per cent year-on-year jump from Rs 22,540.95 crore in the year-ago.

As provisioning for stressed assets increased, during the last fiscal, it incurred a net loss of Rs 4,436 crore compared to Rs. 1,851 crore for the previous fiscal.

--IANS

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