SBI frets over Rs 200-crore loan to Raju

MUMBAI: State Bank of India (SBI) is concerned about the unsecured loan it had extended to Satyam Computer Services promoter B Ramalinga Raju. Sources said that the loan, which was taken six months ago, is in the range of Rs 150-200 crore.

Mr Raju had taken the loan in his personal capacity to help fund the projects ������ which are owned by his sons Rama Raju and Teja Raju, according to people close to the development.

The two companies are reportedly facing a severe credit crunch. Notably, the net debt of Maytas Infra had shot up to Rs 640 crore in FY08 from Rs 180 crore in FY07. Much of this is of a short-term nature, which places this entity in an extremely tight position when liquidity is otherwise severely squeezed, according to an analyst report.

SBI charges 15%-20% on personal loans which are taken without any collateral. If Mr Raju fails to repay the loan to SBI within 90 days of the due date, the loan will have to be treated as a bad loan. According to Reserve Bank of India���s (RBI) norms, if banks restructure personal loans, then they have to immediately treat the accounts as non-performing assets (NPAs).

Banks generally try to avoid migration of an account from standard to sub-standard category because not only does it increase the ratio of NPAs, but they also have to make a higher provision for bad loans. Despite repeated reminders, SBI officials did not respond to a mail on the issue sent by ET.

Sources said that the promoter had borrowed money from a large number of organisations to tide over the financial crunch that was affecting the group���s infrastructure-related projects. The money was also used to fudge the balance sheet of Satyam Computer, as admitted by Mr Raju himself.