Union Bank to sell NT$2.29 B. in NPLs to Morgan Stanley

Taipei, May 30, 2003 (CENS)--Union Bank of Taiwan said yesterday that it has signed a contract for selling NT$2.29 billion in non-performing loans (NPLs) to Morgan Stanley to help improve its asset quality.

The NPLs are composed of secured and unsecured corporate loans, the bank said in a statement.

The sales of the non-performing loans will help the bank lower its overdue loan ratio to around 3% from 3.89% at the end of April, the bank said.

However, the bank's overdue loan ratio was 7% at the end of March if those loans under surveillance were included.

The bank said it will continue to work on to reduce the amount of its NPLs, but stated that most of its NPLs are "good assets" and that there are no needs for the bank to sell again its NPLs to asset management companies in the rest of the year.

Union Bank said it targets to cut its overdue loan ratio to 2.5% and the broad-measured of the overdue loan ratio to 5%, by the end of the year.