Central Bank of India puts up $468m worth of bad loans for sale

Interested parties should submit an EOI and sign non-disclosure agreements for an e-auction on 20 March.

Central Bank of India is selling $469m (INR33.25b) worth of bad-loan accounts, including those of Essar Steel and Bhushan Power and Steel, reported The Economic Times.

Also read: Indian banks make headway in denting bad debt in Q3

The bank is also selling the accounts of Alok Industries and Bombay Rayo before the financial year grinds to a close. The bank urged interested parties to submit expressions of interest (EOI) and sign non-disclosure agreements for an e-auction under the Swiss challenge method on 20 March.

“We have made adequate provisions for these loans and have already received binding offers for this,” Central Bank CEO Pallav Mahapatra said. “Whatever bids we receive above the offers we have will be written back in our accounts for the quarter,” Mahapatra said.”

The Central Bank of India is amongst the six lenders which are still under the regulator’s prompt corrective action (PCA) restrictions. The bank was hit with a loss of $100m (INR7.18b) in Q3 as total income fell.