What success? SBI could sell only 130 of the 300 properties in e-auction

Country’s largest bank SBI could sell about 130 properties only through its much publicised e-auction of 300 assets, realising just about Rs 100 crore. “We sold around 130 properties, largely residential through the e-auction process, realising about Rs 100 crore,” a senior SBI official said. He said SBI could sell all of the 100 residential properties it had put on the block. [caption id=“attachment_2006061” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] This was the maiden attempt by the lender, which has been fighting a long battle to contain bad loans, to dispose of distressed properties through an e-auction. SBI had put on block around 300 properties worth Rs 1,200 crore, including offices, shops, factory buildings and residential apartments spread across 25 cities including four major metros through an e-auction last Saturday, after it had put out a public notice on Thursday. Considering heavy traffic on magicbricks.com, the property site that was assigned to carry out the auction, SBI had extended the time for auctions by an hour. “Due to heavy traffic, the site has become slow and we don’t want anyone to miss the chance. Earlier, the bidding time was till 5 pm and we are now going to extend it by an hour,” SBI Deputy Managing Director, stressed assets group, PK Malhotra had said last Saturday. The process was conducted by e-procurement solutions providers C1 India and Auction Tiger. PTI