More Stories

Informist, Monday, Apr. 27, 2026

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI – State-owned UCO Bank plans to raise funds via qualified institutional placements, offer for sale, or a mix of two to bring down the government's shareholding to less than 75% by the end of Apr-Mar (2026-27), Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashwani Kumar said in a post-earnings press conference Monday. Fundraising via these instruments will likely begin in the September quarter, he said. 

"Our capital raising plan has been approved by the board; now we will go to the shareholders for approval, and we plan to bring it down to a mandated level of 75% during this financial year," Kumar said. "We will just wait for the right opportunity and right time, when to go for the same to the market, whether to go to QIP, or to go to the OFS, which the government is planning, so various permutations and combinations will be used to bring it down to the mandated level," the management said.

UCO Bank's board on Saturday approved raising up to INR 50 billion through the issuance of various bonds in multiple tranches in FY27. The board has also given its go-ahead to raise INR 27 billion equity capital by issuing 2.7 billion shares in multiple tranches during FY27.

As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India norms, all listed companies must maintain at least 25% public shareholding. The Department of Financial Services had cleared fundraising plans of five PSU banks in the second half of FY26 through QIP and OFS. These approvals are typically granted for a year, allowing the state-owned banks to hit the market at an opportune time. The government holds 90.95% share in UCO Bank. 

Alongside its equity dilution plan, the bank is evaluating multiple avenues to raise funds through bonds, including issuances of tier-I and tier-II bonds, infrastructure bonds, and refinancing options. "We have taken approval of the board, for raising bonds also, so there can be a combination of bonds, tier-I, tier-II or infrastructure bond, that is again at the right time when the opportunity is there," Kumar said.

"There is another opportunity of raising refinance also from our portfolio, so there are number of options available for the bank to raise resources to fund the growth, so that way liquidity will not be a challenge in the financial year for the credit (growth)." His comments assume importance as the bank has projected its credit-deposit ratio to rise to 80-82% in FY27 from 80.21% end of FY26. It projected deposits to grow 10-12% and credit to grow 12-14% this fiscal. 

Financial results released earlier in the day showed UCO Bank's net profit for the March quarter grew nearly 23% on year to INR 8.01 billion. Sequentially, the net profit rose over 8%. Monday, shares of the bank ended at INR 26.55, 0.3% up on the National Stock Exchange. The bank's global advances grew 19.4% on year to INR 2.6 trillion in FY26, while global deposits grew 11.6% to INR 3.3 trillion. The capital adequacy ratio stood at 18.61% at the end of March. 

On the asset quality front, the bank said it does not foresee any stress arising from geopolitical conflict in West Asia. The bank's management expects the slippage ratio to remain below 1% in FY27. Slippage ratio for the year ended Mar. 31 stood at 0.78%.

"We do not see any immediate crisis... we have created a buffer in our balance sheet," the management said, adding that the bank holds contingency and additional provisions of around INR 19 billion to cushion against potential risks. The bank also said there has been no impact of the West Asia conflict on transactions routed through Iran-linked escrow accounts. 

On the business front, UCO Bank expects credit growth momentum to remain stable, with micro, small and medium enterprises advances seen growing around 20% in FY27. In the year ended March, the bank's business performance was steady, with global advances and global deposits rising over 19% on year and nearly 12% on year, respectively, to INR 2.6 trillion and INR 3.3 trillion as of Mar. 31. 

ANTHROPIC-MYTHOS RUCKUS

Speaking about the latest controversy about the security concerns from Claude Mythos Preview, Kumar said that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also recently flagged concerns around the potential risks posed by such AI tools, urging banks and financial institutions to strengthen safeguards. Tackling such emerging threats will require higher investments across the financial sector, Kumar added. 

Claude Mythos Preview, a highly advanced artificial intelligence model developed by the US-based Anthropic PBC, recently made headlines after unauthorised access was made to its new model Mythos, which is deemed too dangerous for public release. The company had chosen to restrict access to the new model to select partners because of its unprecedented ability to autonomously detect and exploit software vulnerabilities.

Kumar said it has already begun identifying gaps in its systems and is working to strengthen its digital infrastructure. "We have worked out certain gap points where we need to focus to bring more functionalities into the system," the management said. UCO Bank plans to increase investments in cybersecurity and technology as concerns rise over emerging risks from advanced artificial intelligence systems such as Anthropic-Mythos, the bank's management said. The bank also plans to invest INR 10 billion in information technology-related advancements in FY27, with a large-scale focus on strengthening digital infrastructure and tackling emerging risks such as AI-led threats.

"So, we are conscious of this threat, and together we are working to see how to combat this threat," the managing director said. "We have to work, we have to innovate the tools. Probably, AI is the tool which will fight this new threat."  End

Reported by Taniva Singha Roy and Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000 

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.