SBI to e-auction distressed property on June 12

Mumbai: Country's largest lender State Bank of India on Friday said it will be selling its distressed assets through an online auction on June 12.

This is the second e-auction which the bank will be conducting in this year after its maiden attempt in March.

SBI, in a public notice on Friday, said it will be conducting a mega e-auction of distressed residential and commercial properties on June 12.

At the auction, the bank will try to sell offices, shops, apartments and factory buildings located in about 40 cities.

In a similar auction held on March 14, the bank had put on auction 300 residential and commercial properties worth around Rs 1,200 crore.

However, the bank could sell only around 130 properties, which were largely residential, realising just about Rs 100 crore.

Last month, SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had said that the bank would continue to hold such e-auctions every quarter.

"We have decided to hold e-auction of distressed properties every quarter separately for retail properties meaning mostly residential ones and for commercial properties.

Such actions will happen in the middle of the last month of every quarter," she had said.

For the March quarter, SBI's gross non-performing assets improved to 4.25 per cent from 4.95 per cent in the same period last year, while net NPAs improved to 2.12 per cent from 2.57 per cent from the year-ago period.