MUMBAI: State Bank of India has said that it had lodged a complaint against ABG Shipyard with the Central Bureau of Investigation on behalf of public sector banks (PSBs) in November 2019 and there was no delay on its part. The bank said that despite ICICI Bank being the lead lender and IDBI Bank being the second lead, “it was preferred that SBI, being the largest PSB lender, lodges the complaint with CBI”, the bank said in a statement.
The clarification comes at a time when the Congress party has questioned the government over delay in filing an FIR. ABG Shipyard was one of the 12 accounts referred to insolvency by the RBI in 2017. Lenders, who have a Rs 22,842-crore exposure, lost most of their money as there were no takers for the company under insolvency.
“Due to poor performance, the account became NPA (non-performing asset) on November 30, 2013. The account was restructured under the corporate debt-restructuring mechanism in March 2014 by all lenders. However, as the shipping industry was going through a downturn, one of the worst ever seen, the operations of the company could not revive,” the SBI statement added.
The account was again classified as NPA in July 2016, backdated with effect from November 30, 2013. E&Y was appointed as forensic auditor by lenders during April 2018. The report submitted by E&Y was placed before the fraud identification committee of 18 lenders in 2019. Fraud is mainly attributed to diversion of funds, misappropriation, and criminal breach of trust. “A second complaint was filed in December 2020. The account is presently undergoing liquidation under an NCLT-driven process,” SBI said. It said the second complaint followed after gathering additional information. “At no point in time there was any effort to delay the process. The lenders’ forum diligently follows through with CBI in all such cases,” SBI said.
The clarification comes at a time when the Congress party has questioned the government over delay in filing an FIR. ABG Shipyard was one of the 12 accounts referred to insolvency by the RBI in 2017. Lenders, who have a Rs 22,842-crore exposure, lost most of their money as there were no takers for the company under insolvency.
“Due to poor performance, the account became NPA (non-performing asset) on November 30, 2013. The account was restructured under the corporate debt-restructuring mechanism in March 2014 by all lenders. However, as the shipping industry was going through a downturn, one of the worst ever seen, the operations of the company could not revive,” the SBI statement added.
The account was again classified as NPA in July 2016, backdated with effect from November 30, 2013. E&Y was appointed as forensic auditor by lenders during April 2018. The report submitted by E&Y was placed before the fraud identification committee of 18 lenders in 2019. Fraud is mainly attributed to diversion of funds, misappropriation, and criminal breach of trust. “A second complaint was filed in December 2020. The account is presently undergoing liquidation under an NCLT-driven process,” SBI said. It said the second complaint followed after gathering additional information. “At no point in time there was any effort to delay the process. The lenders’ forum diligently follows through with CBI in all such cases,” SBI said.
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