Top officials of the State Bank of India, the leading creditor of crisis-ridden Kingfisher Airlines said on Monday that the decision to seize Kingfisher House, the airline’s corporate headquarters is in line with whatever actions are required to recover the airline’s dues.
The next move on recovery front would be to take over Kingfisher Villa in Goa, bank officials said. Apart from attaching property, lenders are invoking corporate and personal guarantees provided by Vijay Mallya as part of their efforts to recover their money.
Kingfisher House, the headquarters of Kingfisher Airlines in the north-west Mumbai suburb of Vile Parle, was taken possession by a consortium of 14 banks led by SBI on Sunday after after the debt-ridden carrier failed to pay up its dues.
The move is part of the lenders' initiatives to recover Rs 6,072 crore along with interest. SBI Caps trustee -- on behalf of lenders -- took physical possession of the 25,850-square feet plot, which includes the office premises of about 17,072 square feet.
It had issued a notice to KFA under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act on May 3, 2013, which was a precursor to acquiring the defaulter's property under the Act.
The Act says: "If the borrower fails to repay within 60 days of the notice, lenders can take possession of assets and dispose of them."
SBI Cap had filed a claim on May 3, this year under the Sarfaesi Act to recover dues. Under the claim, the lenders had given 60 days’ notice to airline and it had expired on 1 July.
When quizzed by media at the bank's first quarterly briefing on Monday afternoon, SBI Chairman Pradip Chaudhuri said, "Out of the banking systems total loan exposure of Rs 6,000 plus crore to KFA, SBI’s share is Rs 1,600 crore."
Responding to a related query, SBI's Deputy Managing Director Shyamal Acharya succintly said: “Whatever actions are required, we have taken. Also, we have the personal guarantees of (vijay) Mallya.”
Specific to takeover of KFA headquarters in Mumbai, another SBI official conceded that lenders consortium expects to recover at least Rs 1,000 crore by taking possession of buildings, helicopters and other fixed assets.
Rs 550 crore recovered
A consortium led by State Bank of India has recovered around Rs 550 crore by selling shares of troubled airline Kingfisher.
Out of this, SBI got Rs 140 crore, the bank's mid-corporates head Shyamal Acharya also said.
For the rest of the nearly Rs 6,000 crore unpaid debt, he said banks have personal guarantees of airline chairman Vijay Mallya.