Mumbai: State-run Punjab National Bank, which returned to the black in the December quarter with a modest profit after three successive quarters of massive losses, has set a target of recovering Rs 10,000 crore from bad loans in the March quarter. So far this fiscal year, the lender had made recoveries worth Rs 16,600 crore from bad loans, the lender said. The bank, which was hit hard by the Rs 14,000-crore Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi scam in February 2018, had Tuesday pencilled in a net profit of Rs 247 crore for the December quarter.
“We expect a recovery of Rs 10,000 crore from NPAs in which include Rs 6,000 crore from Bhushan Power & Steel and Essar Steel (both at the NCLTs) in the current quarter,” MD and CEO Sunil Mehta said. He said the balance Rs 4,000 crore of the planned recovery will be from smaller accounts as well as from a few NCLT accounts. Mehta said the bank will get Rs 1,800 crore as write-back on provisions made for Bhushan Power & Steel and Essar Steel in the March quarter.
Both these companies are at the last leg of the resolution process, as the NCLTs have cleared the bids by JSW Steel and ArcelorMittal, respectively. During the nine months of FY19, the bank’s recoveries from bad loans stood at Rs 16,600 crore, he said. Its exposure to NCLT accounts is Rs 36,367 crore for which it has made a provision for 75.1 per cent. It is also in the process of selling stake in its housing finance arm PNB Housing Finance. The last date for accepting the bids is February 8.
It has also put on block its erstwhile headquarters at Bhikaji Cama Place in south Delhi and Mehta hopes both the transactions to be completed in the current quarter. During the quarter, gross NPA declined to 16.33 percent, and net NPAs to 8.22 percent. The reporting quarter saw fresh slippages of Rs 3,324 crore. Mehta said the bank has a small exposure to the crisis-ridden IL&FS after Rs 313 crore of loans have already slipped into NPAs.