SBI puts up Rs 787 cr of NPA accounts on sale

State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday put on sale two non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs 787 crore and sought bids from asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) on a cash basis, or through a mix of cash and security receipts (SRs), according to a sale document. The two accounts on the block are the bank’s Rs 647.64-crore exposure to Sona Alloys and its Rs 139.36-crore exposure to Zenith Birla (India). Bidding will be held on the bank’s e-auction platform. According to the sale document, for each of the assets, the bid with the highest cash component shall be considered as the successful bid. Interested parties must submit an expression of interest (EoI) by March 12. The due diligence exercise will be completed by March 22 and the process of e-bidding will be held on March 23. E-bidding for another 15 NPA accounts of SBI worth Rs 989 crore is scheduled for March 23. These include SBI’s Rs 158.57-crore exposure to Simbhaoli Sugars, a company being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with respect to an alleged case of bank fraud. This is the third time in two months that SBI has put NPAs on sale. On February 16, it had put on sale loans worth Rs 1,936 crore to 24 different entities. A new mechanism for resolution of stressed assets, which kicked into effect on March 1, holds banks to a time-bound recognition and resolution of NPAs. As a result, banks can now be expected to seek quick resolution in bad-loan accounts.

State Bank of India