Kingfisher Air gets ‘humanitarian’ funds

Sources had said bankers after an emergency meeting yesterday had agreed to release funds from escrow accounts,which is likely to fetch up to Rs 60 crore for the carrier.

SBI heads the consortium of 17 lenders to the crippled carrier. Chaudhuri,however,did not divulge the total quantum of the money banks were having.

Collectively,the 17-bank consortium has Rs 7,000-crore outstanding to the Vijay Mallya-promoted airline.

The SBI chief said that he does not know how much of a solace this would offer. “I don’t know how adequate that (the release of money) would be.”

The wife of a Delhi-based technician of the airline,which has been grounded since Sunday following a strike by its engineers and a section of pilots,allegedly committed suicide yesterday due to the financial troubles in the family and blamed the airline for it in a suicide note.

The Aviation Ministry and the sector regulator DGCA have been insisting to keep the fleet grounded unless concerns around safety and wages are solved.

The striking employees have been asking for an immediate payment of salary for three months out of the total seven months outstanding for resuming duties.

Chaudhuri said the only way forward for the banks is to be patient and wait for Mallya to get an investor. “Banks are still giving time to Mallya to get an investor. Because if we pull the plug it would be irretrievable. And if we are patient with him,possibly there is a chance he would revive.”

“If we pull the plug now then all possible investors would also walk away. Having waited for so long we might as well wait some more time,” Chaudhuri said.

SBI has a Rs 1,580-crore exposure to the near-bankrupt carrier and has already classified it as a non-performing asset.

“We have made full provisions for this so from here there is no further downside for SBI,” Chaudhuri said.

On the airline’s repeated calls for fresh lending,he said,”there are no assets to hypothecate,so there is no room for more debt.”

Meanwhile,on the seventh day of their strike today,a large number of KFA employees,wearing black badges and ribbons,staged a protest march at domestic airport and the Kingfisher House here this morning. They held placards with

slogans like ‘Who is a criminal? The poor employees or the management?’

The airline and its promoters have most of their shares and assets pledged with banks. These include the brand Kingfisher (pledged for a value of Rs 4,100 crore) and two of its properties – the Kingfisher Villa in Goa and Kingfisher House in Mumbai – together valued at around Rs 200 crore.

Within the consortium,SBI has the single largest exposure with Rs 1,580 crore,followed by IDBI Bank (Rs 720 crore),PNB (Rs 435 crore),Bank of India (Rs 575 crore),Bank of Baroda (Rs 530 crore),Central Bank of India (Rs 420

crore),UBI (Rs 350 crore),Corporation Bank (Rs 150 crore),and Federal Bank (Rs 80 crore which is not a loan but an en-cashed bank guarantee to BPCL).

Lenders together hold around 23 per cent in KFA since March,after the banks converted their Rs 6,500 crore of recast debt (after November 2010 CDR) into equity. These stakes were picked up at a hefty premium. When the share was

trading at Rs 38,the banks converted these shares at Rs 64.48 per share.

The KFA scrip shed 4.68 per cent on the BSE today to close at Rs 13.25

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