United Bank of India is negotiating with a clutch of asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) to sell bad loans worth Rs 100 crore for cleaning up its loan book, a senior bank official today said.

The bank plans to sell off Rs 100 crore of its bad loans by end-March and has already sold Rs 200 crore worth bad assets so far in this fiscal, UBI Executive Director T M Bhasin told reporters at the bank's listing ceremony here.

"We have received bids from ARCs to sell our bad assets. We are currently evaluating bids and expect to sell Rs 100 crore-worth bad loans by the end of this month," he said.

The decision to sell off bad loans is part of restructuring the bank's advance portfolio and also reduce the non-performing assets burden, Bhasin said, without outlining the segments which have incurred most of the losses.

Kolkata-based UBI has a gross NPA level of 2.4 per cent, while its net NPAs stands at 1.21 per cent. This is slightly higher than its peers.

United Bank currently has a loan book of Rs 43,000 crore, while its total deposit base stands at around Rs 67,000 crore.