India's PNB aims to reverse steep downfall with one-off share sale

The bank reportedly plans on selling its stake in its housing finance unit.

Fraud-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) is aiming to raise $730m in (Rs 5,000 crore) in net income to reverse its fall from grace after booking a massive year-end loss following a $2b fraud, reports The Economic Times. 

The loss representing the biggest ever by an Indian lender. PNB set aside a higher-than-required $1.06b (71.78b rupees) in the three months to March 31, or half of the total $2.12b (143.57b rupees) it owes other banks for the illegal guarantees. That led to a more than tripling of its total provisions from a year earlier to $3b (203.53b rupees).

Also read: PNB needs $1.91b in capital infusion just to meet regulatory requirements

The bank plans to achieve this ambitious growth target by selling non-core assets including its stake in PNB Housing Finance Ltd.

The bank also aims to cut its bad loan ratio by haf from 11.2% over the year through March 2019, the people said.