Dena Bank on Monday said the bank is running a non-performing assets (NPA) reduction mission known as ‘Mission Dena 9999’, with an aim of bringing it down to four-digit by end of March.

There will be a healthy reduction in NPAs because of asset reconstruction companies (ARC) sale and the bank is focussing on reducing NPAs to a four-digit number, said Karnam Sekar, MD and CEO, Dena Bank.

"In absolute terms, it was around Rs 16,000 crore in September," Sekar said.

The bank is planning to sell properties worth Rs 462 crores ahead of their merger with Bank of Baroda and Vijaya Bank.

"We had identified these non-core assets some time ago and expect few of the properties to be sold in Q3 and rest in Q4. Significant portion of the property sale will happen in FY19," he said.

Properties of Rs 300-400 crore have been identified to be sold, Sekar said, adding that the bank has sold NPAs worth Rs 500 crore and one more NPA sale will happen by end of December.