SBI plans sale of Essar loans worth Rs 15,000 crore as part of cleanup act

Senior SBI executive said the sale if goes through would give bank immediate cash to be deployed for lending operations

In a surprise move, State Bank of India has put on sale its Rs 15,431-crore loan to Essar Steel in a bid to clean up its bal­a­nce sheet. It has set a reserve price of Rs 9,587 crore, which is a discount of 38 per cent.

The resolution case of Essar Steel is pending in front of the Ahmedabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which is slated to pronounce an order on January 31. SBI, the country’s largest bank, has decided to sell the loan in a full-cash deal.

This is second time that SBI is putting Essar’s  loan