KOLKATA: City-based United Bank of India (UBI) is open for an ‘out-of-NCLT’ (National Company Law tribunal) settlement in those cases where it is the sole lender. The bank, which is under an RBI-prescribed prompt corrective action (PCA), is hoping to come out of that framework by the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal.
The public sector lender’s MD & CEO Ashok Kumar Pradhan on Tuesday disclosed this to reporters while analysing the fourth quarter results of the bank. After seven quarters of consecutive losses, the bank on Monday reported a net profit of Rs 95 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19 despite higher provisioning.
Elaborating the plan for an out-of-court settlement in the NCLT, Pradhan added that the price discovery in such cases would be important. “In NCLT, all banks and financial institutions are facing haircuts — that is through a legal framework. But when you will go for a haircut through negotiations, a price-discovery mechanism is required to avoid future controversy, though most of the IBC cases have gone much beyond the stipulated timeframe,” he added.
According to him, the net present value (NPV) of an asset could be a benchmark to discover value. The UBI MD pointed out that it has referred 33 cases to the NCLT - Kolkata bench in the last four-five months. Out of these, two cases have been admitted. “In these cases, UBI is the sole lender and the total exposure is Rs 300 crore. These are mainly mid-sized companies. We may start negotiations with them for settlement,” he added.
He pointed out that with the increase in the number of NCLT benches, there will be speedy disposal of cases.
UBI ED Sanjay Kumar said that from written-off account, UBI has recovered Rs 220 crore in the fourth quarter and Rs 340 crore in the entire fiscal. In the current fiscal, it is hoping to recover Rs 800 crore from written-off accounts.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com