State-owned Bank of India (BOI) plans to sell Rs 30,000 crore worth of bad loans to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) in the current financial year, almost double the amount identified for offloading in 2018-19.
“Our target is to reduce gross NPAs to the extent possible and this is one of the big ways to do it,” the bank's Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Dinabandhu Mohapatra said, adding that the lender will look only for all-cash deals.
This also includes cases that are facing delays in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for resolution. BOI has Rs 31,900 crore of loans filed under the NCLT as on March 2019.
In the financial year ended March 2019, the bank had identified non-performing assets (NPAs) of Rs 17,000 crore. However, it sold Rs 4,000 crore and recovered Rs 1,774 crore from ARCs.
BOI reported a net profit of Rs 251.8 crore in the January-March quarter, as compared to a loss of Rs 3,969 crore in the same period last year, on the back of lower slippages and provisions.
The bank’s gross NPA ratio eased to 15.84 percent at the end of March 2019, from 16.58 percent a year ago. Its net NPA ratio also fell to 5.61 percent from 8.26 percent in the same period. Slippages fell to Rs 17,904 crore in 2018-19, from Rs 25,580 crore in the previous financial year.
Mohapatra said the bank is in a position to target 15 percent credit growth and 8 percent deposit growth in 2019-20. The bank reported loan growth of 1.83 percent and flat growth in deposits in the year ended March 2019.
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