BENGALURU: State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said its exposure to Adani Group is of nearly Rs 27,000 crore or 0.8-0.9% of its loan book. Announcing third quarter results, Dinesh Khara , chairman of SBI, said he doesn’t envisage any challenge from the Group to meet debt obligations.
“We have lent to Adani for projects which have tangible assets and have adequate cash collections. They are able to meet obligations. It is only 0.8-0.9% of our loan book,” said Khara, addressing media persons after announcing the results.
The country’s largest lender has not given loans against shares to the Adani Group companies and SBI will not be impacted by the recent crash in the shares of Adani firms. “We have not extended any loan against shares. The stock price will not impact our loans. As I mentioned, it is all against assets that are cash generating and have an excellent track record in repayments,” Khara said.
The bank’s net profit surged 68.5% to Rs 14,205 crore for the December quarter, up from Rs 8,431.9 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The net interest income increased 24% to Rs 38,068.6 crore in December quarter versus Rs 30,687.4 crore year-on-year. Bank’s asset quality showed significant improvement in the December quarter and its gross bad loan ratio dropped to 3.14 % from 4.50 % a year ago.