After negative growth, Syndicate bank expects 2% growth this year, says CEO Mrutyunjay Mahapatra

Coimbatore: State-owned Syndicate Bank, which saw a negative growth in the last two quarters, is expecting to achieve a two percent growth this financial year, Bank Managing Director and CEO, Mrutyunjay Mahapatra said on Tuesday. The bank had de-grown in the last six months (two quarters) this fiscal of 2018-19, particularly due to some NPAs and also due to waivers of loans in agriculture sector, Mahapatra told reporters here. The bank is not under capital pressure and could afford to wait till the market sentiments improve, he said. [caption id=“attachment_2664032” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Syndicate Bank. Getty image.[/caption] Mahapatra said the Bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio is 12 percent and looking at a growth capital of Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore. The bank has plans to raise Rs 400 crore to Rs 500 crore under the Employee Share Purchase Scheme, by giving shares to employees 20 to 25 percent less than the market prices, he said. The bank is also contemplating issue of Rights share or tier-I bonds by the end of the last quarter of the current fiscal, he said. To a question on NPA, Mahapatra said the bank has exceeded in its recovery, particularly from corporates, which stood at Rs 3,700 crore against the targeted Rs 3,000 crore. “We were seeing some bottoming out of corporate NPAs, but because of farm loan waiver, we had to provide for Agri-NPA, during the third quarter,” he said.