Karnataka Bank expects to recover Rs 250 crore of its delinquent loans using the SARFAESI Act, the bank's Managing Director, Mr P. Jayarama Bhat, told Business Line on Friday. (The Act arms banks with powers to liquidate hypothecated assets to realise bad loans.) In 2010-11, the bank recovered Rs 170 crore.
The bank has on its books bad loans worth Rs 702 crore (3.7 per cent) for the quarter ending March 31, 2011. Net non-performing assets were at about Rs 280 crore (1.6 per cent) for the same period. Most of the delinquent loans were of the diamond and coffee industries.
Mr Bhat, who was here in connection with the opening of a branch (at Gopalapuram) here, said that the bank brought down its exposure to coffee cultivators to less than Rs 100 crore compared with Rs 250 crore last year.
Shares of Karnataka Bank closed at Rs 115 down by 0.35 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange.