Govt mulls additional capital infusion in five PSU banks

The government is considering additional capital infusion of up to Rs 30,000 crore in public sector banks as they have been unable to raise required funds from the markets, sources said.

As part of the capital infusion plan announced by the Finance Ministry in October 2017, the government envisaged that public sector banks (PSBs) would raise Rs 58,000 crore from the stock markets by March 2019 to meet Basel III norms.

However, due to subdued market conditions, banks have been unable to raise enough funds from the markets so far.

In addition, non-performing assets of many banks have seen a spurt in the first two quarters of this fiscal, putting stress on their bottomlines.

However, the banks have got a breather in respect of Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB), a part of Basel III norms. The RBI, at its last board meeting, deferred the requirement to meet the CCB target by one year, leaving about Rs 37,000 crore in the hands of banks.

Despite this relaxation, PSBs need more funds to meet global capital norms called Basel III as the RBI has retained the capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR) at 9 percent, sources said, adding, the shortfall could be around Rs 30,000 crore.

However, sources said the matter is being considered by the government and the final decision is expected in the next few weeks.

The government had decided to take a massive step to capitalise PSBs in a front-loaded manner, with a view to support credit growth. This entailed mobilisation of capital to the tune of about Rs 2,11,000 crore over the next two years -- through budgetary provisions of Rs 18,139 crore, recapitalisation bonds of Rs 1,35,000 crore, and the balance through raising of capital by banks from the market while diluting government equity estimated at Rs 58,000 crore.

As per this plan, the remaining capital infusion is about Rs 42,000 crore.

Earlier this year, the government pumped in Rs 11,336 crore into five PSBs -- PNB, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank -- to improve their financial health.

PNB, hit by the Nirav Modi scam, got the highest amount of Rs 2,816 crore, while Allahabad Bank received Rs 1,790 crore. Andhra Bank got capital support of Rs 2,019 crore, Indian Overseas Bank Rs 2,157 crore and Corporation Bank Rs 2,555 crore.

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4 PSU banks put up NPAs worth over Rs 7,500cr for sale

At least four large public sector banks have put up nearly Rs 7,500 crore worth of non-performing assets (NPAs) on sale to asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) and other financial institutions.

Lenders including State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank and Andhra Bank have decided to sell a large part of their NPA exposures to accounts which are undergoing resolutions at various insolvency courts.

“We expect to recover a large part of these assets on a cash basis. This also helps us avoid delays in resolution due to the excessive litigation,” said the head of a large public sector bank.

On November 20, Bank of Baroda listed 35 bad loan accounts worth Rs 4,237 crore for sale on its website. These include: Jindal India Thermal Power (Rs 334.93 crore), Rathi Steel & Power (Rs 290.52 crore) and Rolta India (Rs 287.38 crore).

“The interested ARCs/ banks/ NBFCs/FIs can conduct due diligence of these assets with immediate effect after submitting expression of interest and executing a non-disclosure agreement with the Bank,” BoB said on its website.

Similarly, state-owned Andhra Bank has invited bids for the proposed sale of its NPAs comprising 53 accounts, with a principal balance of Rs 1,552.96 crore on a cash basis only. The e-bidding will take place on December 3. The bank will execute the assignment agreements and fund transfer on or before December 10.

Another government-owned lender Dena Bank proposed sale of 84 NPAs, with an outstanding exposure of Rs 3,324 crore, to be sold through an e-bidding process on November 29. The country’s largest lender SBI had also put up 11 bad loan accounts for sale to ARCs and financial companies to recover dues worth nearly Rs 1,019 crore.

Price still pinches

“Banks are putting up many distressed assets on sale, but pricing continues to be an issue. However, with more cash deals and push for a clean-up from the regulator has helped us garner a better price. They (banks) also want to avoid the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) February 12 circular. Hence, they are putting up more assets on sale,” said a chief of a large ARC.

The circular mandates all lenders to push all borrower accounts for resolution under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) if a successful recovery has not been made within 180 days of the loan turning into an NPA.

Banks and ARCs have been negotiating hard over the past several years. Given the rush to recover loans and increasing supply of bad loans, banks are willing to take more hair-cuts or losses on its loans than before for immediate cash recovery.

Asset Reconstruction Company (India), or Arcil, one of the country's largest ARCs, plans to buy about Rs 5,400 crore worth of stressed assets from banks. For this, it plans to raise additional Rs 1,500 crore in the next six months.

In FY18, Arcil acquired about Rs 2,700 crore worth of assets, while the same for the industry stood at over Rs 20,000 crore, said Pramod Gupta, Arcil’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

With a clear focus on retail and mid-sized distressed assets, Arcil's CEO and Managing Director Vinayak Bahuguna said his firm is selectively looking at some of the industrial assets too. “In the mid-sized segment, we are looking at companies with debt up to Rs 5,000 crore. We are looking at steel, textile and road projects and some select stressed power projects.”

In Q2, Bank of India had put up a total of Rs 10,000 crore worth of NPAs on sale through auction. The bank’s CEO and MD Dinabandhu Mohapatra said the management is negotiating resolutions for power assets worth Rs 3,000 crore. Till March, cumulative estimates suggest that about one-third of the bad loans of banks have been purchased by ARCs.

As on September, banks are sitting on a huge pile of NPAs worth over Rs 10.50 lakh crore on its balance sheets, creating an opportunity for ARCs and domestic and foreign investors.

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Andhra bank net loss widens in Q2

State-owned Andhra Bank on Saturday reported widening of its net loss to Rs 434.10 crore in second quarter which ended September.

It had posted a net loss of Rs 385.11 crore during the July-September period of the previous fiscal.

On a sequential basis, however, its net loss narrowed from Rs 539.83 crore loss in the first quarter ended June of the current fiscal.

In the fiscal ended March 2018, the bank had posted a net loss of Rs 3,412.53 crore due to mounting bad loans.

Total income during the second quarter of 2018-19 rose to Rs 5,249.32 crore as against Rs 5,005.34 crore in the same quarter of 2017-18, Andhra Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Bank's asset quality witnessed a deterioration year-on-year as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) soared to 16.36 per cent of gross advances by end of September quarter 2018 as against 13.27 per cent by the same period of 2017. However, it improved a little when compared with 16.69 per cent by end of June quarter.

Net NPAs, however, showed a slight correction at 7.49 per cent of net loans as at end of September from 7.55 per cent a year ago. In the first quarter ended June, net NPAs stood at 7.96 per cent.

In absolute value, gross bad loans or NPAs stood at Rs 27,623.01 crore by September 2018 as against Rs 19,838.58 crore by September 2017. Net NPAs were Rs 11,427.62 crore as compared to Rs 10,573.60 crore.

However, its provisioning for bad loans came down to Rs 1,155.15 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 1,585.88 crore a year ago. Overall provisioning including for contingencies stood at Rs 1,561.73 crore against Rs 1,668.06 crore.

The provision coverage ratio stood at 65.47 per cent as on September 30, 2018. Andhra Bank said it received Rs 2,019 crore as government capital infusion on July 23 in lieu of preferential allotment of shares.

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Andhra Bank posts big loss for Q4FY18

Public sector lender Andhra Bank today said it suffered Rs 2,636 crore loss for the quarter ended March 31 2018 due to higher provisioning for bad loans. The bank made a profit of Rs 35 crore during the same quarter in FY 17, it said in a press release.

The total income was down by six per cent to Rs 5,093 crore against Rs 5,425 crore in January-March quarter of FY17. The PSU made Rs 3,902 crore towards Contingencies and Provisions during the quarter under discussion against Rs 1,399 crore in Q4 of Fy17.

For the full year of 2017-18 Andhra Bank suffered Rs 3,413 crore loss against Rs 174 crore profit for FY 17, it said. The gross NPAs stood at Rs 28,124.36 crore at the end of FY 18 against Rs 17,669.98 crore at the end of FY17.

Total business grew by 9.70 per cent to Rs 3,72,605 crore in the last fiscal. It was Rs 3,37,693 crore in FY 17, Andhra Bank said.

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Another PSU Bank fruad of Rs 5000 Cr loan

The investigative agency Enforcement Directorate filed a charge sheet against the former Andhra Bank director in an alleged Rs 5,000 crore fraud. The alleged Rs 5,000 crore bank fraud involves a Gujarat-based pharmaceutical firm Sterling Biotech Pvt Ltd, PTI said in a report. Following the blow, a knee-jerk reaction was witnessed in the shares of Andhra Bank on Monday.

Rs 428 crore was wiped off from the market capitalisation of Andhra Bank. At the day’s low of Rs 33.6 (BSE), Andhra Bank held a market capitalisation of Rs 2,937 crore as against Rs 3,365 as on Friday, 9 March 2018.

Meanwhile, shares of the pharma firm Sterling Biotech allegedly involved in the fraud shed as much as 3.51%. The CBI had booked the Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the case.

Anup Prakash Garg, ex-Director, Andhra Bank, was paid about Rs 1.52 crore by Chetan Jayantilal Sandesaraand Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, directors, Sterling Biotech, between 2008 and 2009, PTI reported. Sterling Biotech took loans more than Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank, which turned into NPAs (non-performing assets).

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Five banks may be put under RBI's prompt corrective action(PCA) plan

  

Canara bank and Union Bank of India are among five public sector banks that might be put under the Reserve Bank of India's prompt corrective action plan. According to ICRA ratings show the net non-performing assets (NPAs) of these five banks rose above 6 per cent in December 2017.

If the banking regulator places them under PCA, the action may drive these banks to recall additional tier-1 (AT-1) bonds, which is included in Tier-1 capital, of Rs 157 billion from investors.Apart from Canara bank and Union bank, the other PSBs that might come under PCA are Andhra Bank, Punjab National Bank, and Punjab & Sind Bank.

According to ICRA, over the past 4 years, PSBs have raised AT-I bonds totalling Rs. 603851 crore to shore-up their Tier-I capital ratios in the backdrop of losses, increasing capital requirements under Basel III and limited capital infusion by the Government of India (GoI) in relation to their requirements. "Inclusion in PCA, coupled with recapitalisation of PSBs by the government has triggered a 'regulatory event' and an early recall of AT-I bonds" by these banks, says the report. 

RBI earlier stated that the PCA framework was intended to encourage banks to eschew certain riskier activities and focus on conserving capital so that their balance sheets can become stronger. The PCA framework would apply without exception to all banks operating in India, including small banks and foreign banks, operating through branches or subsidiaries based on breach of risk thresholds of identified indicators.

A bank will be placed under the PCA framework based on the audited Annual Financial Results and the Supervisory Assessment made by RBI. Last year in December, RBI initiated PCA against Bank of India (BOI) for mounting of bad loans placing various restriction on the bank including issuance of fresh loans and dividend distribution. The BoI would not be alone to face the RBI action as there are nine other such banks, mostly state-owned banks, for having higher stressed assets. They include IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, United Bank of India, Dena Bank, Corporation Bank, UCO Bank, Central Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce. In June 2017, RBI gave similar clarifications while initiating banks under the PCA framework. 

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Andhra Bank post net loss in Q3 on NPA woes

Public sector Andhra Bank reported a net loss of Rs 532.02 crore in the third quarter ended December of this fiscal due to higher bad loan provisioning. The bank had made a net profit of Rs 56.70 crore in corresponding October-December period of 2016-17.

Sequentially, it widened the loss against Rs 385.11 crore loss in the second quarter ended September during this fiscal.

Total income of the bank increased slightly to Rs 5,093.43 crore in the December quarter, as against Rs 5,012.86 crore in the year-ago quarter, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

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Andhra Bank posted loss in Q2 due to higher bad loan provisions

Public sector lender Andhra Bank on Thursday said it suffered a Rs385 crore loss for the quarter ended 30 September due to higher provisioning for bad loans.

The bank reported a Rs51 crore net profit during the same quarter in FY 17, Andhra Bank said in a statement. Total income for the quarter under discussion was marginally down to Rs5,005 crore against Rs5,043 crore during the corresponding quarter last year.

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