12
State run Punjab National Bank (PNB) was able to raise around Rs 500 crore after its Employee Stock Purchase Scheme (ESPS) was 90 per cent subscribed.
“The eligible employees could subscribe equity share at a discounted price of Rs 53.95 per equity share.
The scheme was well accepted by the employees,” said an official aware of the developments.
So far no other bank has been able to achieve 90 per cent ratio under ESPS and the credit goes to all the PNB employees, the official added.
Employees from Chennai, Bhopal and Meerut had the maximum participation in the offering.
The lender has posted a loss of Rs 4,532 crore for the quarter ending September 2018 owing to sharp increase in provisioning.
PNB had reported a profit of Rs 560 crore in the corresponding period last year.
PNB’s managing director Sunil Mehta, however, had expressed hope that the bank will be in black by the end of this fiscal and that they have up fronted provisioning requirements.
PNB sharply increased its provisions to Rs 9,757 crore from Rs 5,758 crore in the previous quarter.
Of this it kept aside Rs 7,773 crore for bad loans as against Rs 4,982 crore in the previous quarter.
The provision coverage ratio saw an increase from 59 per cent last year to 67 per cent as of end September 2018.
The bank has now posted losses in the last three quarters.
Post Nirav Modi scam it had posted a staggering loss of Rs 13,416.91 crore for the fourth quarter 2017-18, the biggest ever by any domestic lender.
Till July 2018, the bank had made provision of Rs 9,041.88 crore against the loss of around Rs 15,000 crore in the scam.
The bank had noted that it has made provisions of Rs 3,295.12 crore during the September quarter.
The remaining provision will be made during the next quarter of the current financial year as per terms of RBI's dispensation, it stated.
PNB’s capital adequacy ratio stood at 10.08 per cent at the end of the September quarter compared to 9.62 per cent at the end of the last quarter.
