Rising infra sector NPAs has Andhra Bank focusing on retail

Saddled with high bad assets from the infra sector, the state-run Andhra Bank said going forward, it will concentrate on retail lending.
Chairman and managing director CVR Rajendran said 19 per cent of the assets are in the infra sector-- 11 per cent to the power companies and 8 per cent to infra companies -- and admitted that the bad loan problem is mainly due to that.
Addressing the media here over the weekend, he said, "Now we are shifting our focus to retail lending and hope that this will help us post better numbers next fiscal."
Rajendran said the bank's NPAs went up marginally with gross NPAs at 5 per cent and net NPAs at 3 per cent. He also said recovery from the agriculture sector is encouraging.

As of now, the bank has a total business of Rs 2.30 trillion of which Rs 1.30 trillion is in deposits and Rs 1 trillion in advances, he said.
The bank plans to increase its deposits and advances to Rs 20,000 crore by the end of the current financial year.
The bank is planning to extend financial assistance to Hindustan Shipyard here. A meeting was held with the shipyard officials yesterday and the discussion is on, he said.