Banks step up pressure on Kingfisher Airlines

Want it to bring in at least Rs 2,000 crore

Kingfisher Airlines need to bring at least Rs 2,000 crore of capital for revival, State Bank of India (SBI) said today. “The company has to bring in minimum capital of Rs 2,000 crore, then there can be some possibilty… (of revival)” said Pratip Chaudhuri, chairman, SBI.

Talks are on but there is no progress he added.

Yesterday bankers once again met again Kingfisher Airlines' management in another inconclusive meeting. “If the company doesn’t wish to fly, what can banks do about it” he said. 

"Till the company doesn’t bring money from its own capital I don’t think anything can happen," Chaudhuri further said. 

The solution has to come from the company, he said, indicating that the banks won’t fund till the company brings some amount from its own funds.

Talking about taking legal recourse and realisation of assets he said, if you enforce the assets, whatever  remaining hopes are there those will also disappear.

Earlier, Kingfisher Airlines had submitted a revival plan to DGCA which included limited restart of operations with Rs 650 crore of capital which promoter Vijay Mallya had promised to bring from own sources.

However the DGCA wasn’t impressed by the plan and had asked KFA to bring No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from various agencies including the lenders. While KFA has got NOCs from oil companies and lessors, lenders haven’t issued NOCs yet.

Last year in November Pratip Chaudhuri had asked the management to put in $1 billion.

KFA has been grounded since October 2012 following the strike by its engineers who refused certify the airworthiness of its aircrafts over delayed payments of salaries. Later the DGCA had suspended its operating permit in the same month.

Banks have an exposure of about Rs 7,500 crore to the airline which has been a NPA for them for the last one year. SBI has the maximum exposure of about Rs 1,200 crore to the airline.

Capital Infusion

Meanwhile the SBI board today approved issuing preferential shares to the government to raise Rs 3,004 crore. Chaudhuri said that even without this capital he expects their tier-1 capital to be above 10 per cent by March. The bank plans to put some part of this capital in associate banks and international subsidiaries.