Bank of Maharashtra approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) as it felt that the resolution value for the bankrupt Videocon group offered by Vedanta’s Twin Star Technologies was too low, its managing director and chief executive AS Rajeev said on Thursday.

Besides Bank of Maharashtra, two other lenders—Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) and IFCI Ltd—moved NCLAT after National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved Twin Star Technologies’s resolution plan for Videocon in June.

“We have gone to the NCLAT basically because of the low resolution (value) and have taken it up with the court. Based on the court’s prudence, we will go ahead with that," Rajeev said.

He, however, declined to comment further on the case as the matter was sub-judice.

More than 95% of the lenders in December voted in support of Twin Star’s Rs 2,962-crore takeover plan for 13 Videocon group companies against the admitted claims of Rs 64,838 crore, implying a total haircut of 95.85%. While giving its approval, the NCLT in its order observed that the liquidation value of the Videocon companies and resolution plan were surprisingly very close.

Meanwhile, Bank of Maharashtra said its net profit climbed 106% to Rs 208 crore in the fiscal first quarter ended June 2021 as net interest margins improved. In the year-ago quarter, the bank had posted a net profit of Rs 101 crore. Sequentially, net profit grew 26% from Rs 165 crore in the quarter ended March 2021.

The bank’s operating profit rose 56% year-on-year to Rs 1,110 crore.

Net interest income (NII) rose by 29% to Rs 1,406 crore in the quarter ended June 2021 from Rs 1,088 crore a year ago. Net interest margin (NIM) improved to 3.05% as against 2.43% for Q1 FY21. However, sequentially NIM was higher at 3.11%.

Rajeev said the bank will continue to keep NIM above 3% in the current financial year.

The bank's asset quality improved with gross non-performing assets (NPA) dropping to 6.35% in June 2021 from 10.93% in the year-ago quarter. Net NPA fell to 2.22% from 4.1%.

The bank has guided gross NPA to fall below 6% and net NPA to below 2% in FY22.

Fresh slippages of the bank were to the tune of Rs 840 crore. Recovery and upgradation during the quarter stood at Rs 649 crore as against Rs 156 crore.

Provisions for NPAs rose to Rs 501 crore in the fiscal first quarter from Rs 409 crore a year ago. The provision coverage ratio improved to 90.70% from 85.62%.

During the quarter, the bank made Covid-19 provision of Rs 285 crore. It holds cumulative Covid-19 provision including interest of Rs 973 crore.

Under the RBI's Resolution Framework 2.0, the bank restructured Rs 1,487 crore of loans as of 30 June 2021.

Another Rs 500-600 crore of restructuring request is expected to come in the current quarter.

Gross advances grew 14% to Rs 1,10,592 crore in the June quarter. Total deposits also grew 14% to Rs 1,74,378 crore during the quarter.

Advances were up 14 per cent to Rs 1,10,592 crore in Q1FY22, while deposits also grew by 14 per cent to Rs 1,74,378 crore in June 2021. The bank expects credit to grow by 14-15 % in FY22.

RAM (Retail, Agriculture and MSME) business grew 16% year-on-year.

Retail loans grew 19% to Rs 28,871 crore while MSME advances were up 18% to Rs 21,707 crore.