2G licenses: SBI's loss could be Rs 100 cr

State Bank of India said the loss to it could be Rs 100 crore, in the worst case scenario, following the Supreme Court order cancelling 122 second generation mobile licenses.

"If you visualize the worst case scenario, the loss to the bank could not exceed, to my mind, Rs 100 crore," SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri told reporters after announcing its December quarter results.

SBI has a Rs 200-crore exposure distributed equally between two companies which entered the telecom fray in the spectrum allocation carried out in 2008, Chaudhuri said.

Of the two accounts, it considers one as the "weakest" but it has a guarantee, while in the case of the second company, it does not have adequate guarantee, he said.

However, Chaudhuri added that even in the case of the latter, the bank believes the company is not weak and can pay back the loan amount through "other sources".

The Supreme Court on February 2 cancelled 122 2G licenses granted during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja declaring them as "illegal".

The banking system is reported to have an overall exposure of over Rs 14,000 crore at stake, but a majority of the money was for rollout of services which is not at risk.

SBI had earlier said its exposure to the licensees was Rs 1,200 crore in fund-based terms and Rs 3,400 crore for roll-out.

Deputy Managing Director for Large Corporates Santosh B Nayar said of the Rs 1,200 crore, its actual exposure towards the affected licenses is Rs 680 crore.

A majority of this exposure is to pedigreed corporates and payback will not be a problem for them, he said, stressing that all the companies have a four-month time-frame to take a legal recourse.