Mumbai: Finally, the end-game has begun for Kingfisher Airlines and its beleaguered promoter Vijay Mallya. Lenders to the airline on Tuesday decided to recall their loans, after Mallya & Co failed to give concrete plans for repayment despite repeated requests.
State Bank of India (SBI) officials on Tuesday, post a meeting of lenders, said each bank will take its board approval for recall. The process will take 10-15 days.
“We have given enough time to the airline. But there is no progress from Kingfisher’s side,” a banker said. The 17-bank consortium had extended Rs7,000 crore loans to Kingfisher. Of this, SBI alone has an exposure of Rs1,500 crore, which has not been serviced (interest payments made) since January 2012. “We’ll explore all avenues for recovery,” an SBI official said.
13/02/13 Yuga Chaudhari & Parnika Sokhi/Daily News & Analysis
