BoB to get rid of sticky assets

Bank of Baroda has put on sale advances worth Rs 7,407 crore across 30 accounts to offload part of the bad loans that had shot up to Rs 56,780 crore as of March 31, 2018 from Rs 42,719 crore a year ago. The public sector lender through two separate notices dated June 14 and 15 has invited expressions of interest from potential buyers of these non-performing assets such as asset reconstruction companies and other financial institutions. The sales will be on a cash- term basis, the bank said. Among the NPA accounts chosen by the lender are Binani Cement, Essar Steel India and Bhushan Power Steel with outstanding amounts worth Rs 328.8 crore, Rs 994.33 crore and Rs 1,550.53 crore, respectively. For these three accounts, the expression of interest is invited by June 22, while for the other 27 accounts that include firms such as Jindal India Thermal Power, Rolta India, GVK, GMR Chhattisgarh, GTL Infrastructure, Visa Steel, the date of submission is July 7. Bank of Baroda, which is not yet part of the list of government banks where the RBI has triggered prompt corrective action, has been urged by Union finance minister PiyushGoyal to formulate a strategy to take over the good loans of banks already under PCA.