Still keen to take over UWB: Vijay Kalantri

The United Western Bank stock tumbled nearly 50 per cent this morning on big volumes. 22,00,000 shares were traded. The stock tumbled from Rs22 to Rs11 in five minutes flat.
Vijay Kalantri, CMD of the Balaji Group who was once keen to take over this bank says that he is still keen to take over United Western Bank.

Kalantri says that his company had planed to pump more than Rs200-crore equity in the bank. Kalantri further states that the RBI's decision on the bank is a loss for depositors and shareholders. CNBC-TV18 shares with domain-b its exclusive interview with Kalantri:

You were actually seeking to buy that bank? Did you know it was in so much trouble?
No. We knew there were NPA's to the tune of about 40 per cent. We had made a complete restructuring plan. We made about five presentations to the bank in five different meetings.

We had proposed that we would pump in Rs200 crore by way of equity, about 36 per cent holding, which we would acquire and there were plans to bring in another Rs250 crore-Rs300 crore in the bank to make it more viable. Besides this, there were plans to structure various types of instruments with which the economical viability of the bank would have improved in three to five years. We had submitted all these proposals to the United Western Bank management.

Having looked at this moratorium now, do you think the trouble is more than what you had anticipated and this bank is in serious balance sheet trouble now?
I don't think it is the way it is shown. I think NPAs in the last six month have grown more than what it was earlier.

But when the management is weak and when the management is not able to restructure in time, this happens with any company or any bank.