 "UCO Bank posts Rs 440.57 crore loss in Q1, asset quality deteriorates")
Public sector lender UCO Bank on Tuesday reported a net loss of Rs 440.57 crore in the quarter ended June 30, 2016 as compared to Rs 256.70 crore in the year-ago period.
"The loss was on account of higher provisioning and lower operating profit," said bank's MD and CEO R.K. Takkar.
He said bank's fresh slippages in the quarter under review stood at about Rs 3,116 crore, up from Rs 1,252 crore in the corresponding period last year.
In the quarter, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank were at Rs 22,597.70 crore as compared to Rs 10,894.41 crore in the corresponding quarter. The bank's net NPA ratio in the June quarter rose to 10.04% as against 4.53% in the year-ago period.
The bank has already put NPAs with a total outstanding amount of Rs 1,767 crore on sale to clean up its balance sheet and invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), banks, financial institutions and eligible NBFCs for the proposed sale of its 22 NPA accounts.
Takkar has earlier said his bank was focussing on "pro-active management of asset health" through close monitoring of loan accounts and going all out to recover bad loans to bring down NPA level. It was planning to issue shares on a preferential basis to the government for a capital infusion of Rs 775 crore. Its capital adequacy ratio under Basel III rules stood at 9.90% at the end of June quarter.
