Rs 8,000-cr Maytas exposure worries banks

Banks that lent funds or stood guarantees for loans given to Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties, the two companies controlled by the disgraced Raju family at the heart of the Satyam fraud, are having nightmares.

Banks that lent funds or stood guarantees for loans given to Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties, the two companies controlled by the disgraced Raju family at the heart of the Satyam fraud, are having nightmares. Their collective exposure in deals involving these firms is Rs. 8,000 crore, the bulk of it in guarantees.

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Banking sources said ICICI Bank has the largest exposure of over Rs 3,000 crore, mostly in guarantees for Maytas Infrastructure assuring the timely completion of the projects it bagged – while work on these projects is said to have come to a standstill for want of working capital.

The sources said worried lenders had a meeting with the deposed Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju’s son Teja Raju last week in Hyderabad. Raju sought more loans to restart work on projects but bankers declined to entertain him.

At Rs.3,000 crore, the amount is almost a third of ICICI’s total non-performing loans.

“We are one of several bankers to Maytas Infrastructure and are reviewing our exposure,” an ICICI spokesperson said in an email to Hindustan Times, but gave no details.

Bank of India (BoI) has an exposure of Rs 215 crore, and other banks affected include Axis Bank, IDBI Bank and the Indian Overseas Bank.