Livemint : Jun 16, 2019, 08:47 PM
New Delhi: State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has put on sale six non-performing loans amounting to over ₹1,000 crore, including two accounts of Vandana Vidyut and Visa Steel.Asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), other banks and financial institutions can submit binding bids till 26 June. The bids will be opened on the following day."We intend to place the (six accounts) for sale to ARCs/NBFCs/Other Banks/FIs etc," said a notice put up by PNB.The reserve price for the six non-performing assets (NPAs) has been fixed at ₹342 crore.Bhopal-based Vandana Vidyut Steel owes ₹454.02 crore, while Kolkata located Visa Steel has an outstanding balance of ₹443.76 crore.The rest four NPAs - Temptation Foods, Helios Photovoltaic, Cabcom Cables, and Zoom Vallabh Steel - are Delhi based.The sale process is to be handled by the Stressed Assets Targeted Resolution Action (SASTRA) Division of the bank. The submission of financial bids will be only through e-auction method, which will take place on the portal of the bank, it said.Punjab National Bank (PNB), which was hit by a massive ₹14,000-crore scam allegedly perpetrated by jeweller duo Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, has enhanced its recovery mechanism by forming the Stressed Asset Management Vertical (SAMV) and SASTRA.It is also looking to raise ₹10,000 crore in 2019-20 from sale of non-core assets, rights issue and expected write-backs from two large accounts undergoing insolvency proceedings.For the full fiscal 2018-19, the bank's consolidated net loss was at ₹9,570.11 crore, as against a loss of ₹12,113.36 crore during 2017-18.Its income during the fiscal ended March 2019 rose to ₹59,514.53 crore compared to ₹57,608.19 crore in preceding year.Gross NPAs of the bank stood at ₹78,472.70 crore at the end of the financial year 2018-19, lower than ₹86,620.05 crore reported in 2017-18. Net NPAs were valued at ₹30,037.66 crore as against ₹48,684.29 crore.The Delhi-headquartered bank had recovered ₹20,000 crore in 2018-19 as against ₹9,666 crore in the previous fiscal.