Lenders, tax sleuths vie for first right of recovery from Vijay Mallya

Mumbai: Consortium of fourteen banks has challenged revenue dept's attachment notice before Karnataka HC A consortium of 14 banks fighting to recover money they have lent to Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has challenged an attachment notice the service tax department issued against the liquor baron in the Karnataka High Court to recover tax dues. Now it's for the court to decide the first right of recovery between secured lenders and sovereign dues.
The revenue department, a couple of months ago, claimed the first right to recover dues by attaching the Kingfisher House in Mumbai, six aircraft and two helicopters, besides freezing bank accounts of the defunct airline.

Vijay Mallya in further trouble, State Bank of India sends wilful defaulter notice

Mumbai:  Days after United Bank of India declared Kingfisher Airlines, promoter Vijay Mallya and three other directors wilful defaulters, country's largest bank SBI today said it has also sent a notice to tag them as "wilful defaulters".

"We have already sent a notice to KFA (to declare it as wilful defaulter). There is a mandatory time that needs to be given to them to respond and that time is currently on," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson of SBI.
SBI, which is the lead bank of a lender consortium to the crippled carrier, has an exposure of over Rs 1,600 crore.

Mallya to challenge Kingfisher's wilful defaulter tag

Bangalore: Kingfisher Airlines Ltd would pursue legal remedies to challenge the decision of state-run United Bank of India (UBI) to declare it as a wilful defaulter, promoter and chairman Vijay Mallya said Thursday.

"We will pursue all legal remedies available with us to challenge the bank's declaration, as we do not agree with its grievance redressal committee's findings," Mallya told reporters on the margins of the United Breweries Ltd's 15th annual general meeting here.

Claiming that the bank had not given the airline an opportunity to explain its position or appear before its panel Aug 28, Mallya said it would be premature for him to speculate on the outcome.

Did Vijay Mallya divert United Bank's Rs 336 crore loan?

New Delhi: Based on the findings of a forensic audit conducted by the SBI on Kingfisher Airline's default on Rs7,000 crore loan, the finance ministry says that the company has diverted parts of the loan. The audit report conducted by external agency, Ernst&Young, has observed that chances of the airlines having siphoned off the loans for purposes other than the sanctioned use are 'highly positive'.

According the finance ministry a Rs336 crore loan sanctioned by Union Bank of India (UBI) was withdrawn and deposited in another account with a private bank by Kingfisher. This is not allowed. The audit report has been submitted to the finance ministry two days back. Kingfisher Airlines tops the list of bad debts in the banking sector, which has swelled up to Rs two lakh crore in the last five years.

Vijay Mallya appears before court

Bangalore: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Thursday appeared before Special Economic Offences Court in the City following summons by the court seeking his personal appearance in a case pertaining to non-payment of taxes.
Mallya appeared before the court in connection with a complaint filed by the Income Tax department for not paying Rs 266 crore in form of tax dues of Kingfisher Airlines. He explained the reason for delay in remitting the tax dues. Mallya also applied for bail in this connection. The court, which heard his bail plea, granted him conditional bail.

Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines is king of defaulters at Rs 4,022 crore

New Delhi: Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has emerged as the country's top non-performing asset (NPA) after it has failed to repay loans of over Rs 4,000 crore borrowed mainly from state-owned banks. It highlights the woes of lenders saddled with bad debt and in need to raise Rs 2.4 lakh crore over the next five years to meet the economy's growing funding needs.
Together, the top 50 defaulters had outstanding of over Rs 53,000 crore at the end of December 2013, the period for which data was submitted to the finance ministry.
Read news in full 17/07/14 Sidhartha/Times of India

India's Ex-Billionaire Mallya Sells More Assets To Help Pay Kingfisher Debt

India’s former billion dollar man, Vijay Mallya, sold more of his prized possessions on Wednesday, getting more for his United Spirits beverage company that the market previously thought.
Mallya sold an additional 26% stake in United Spirits — the prime source of his wealth — to U.K. beverage giant Diageo for around $2 billion. Diageo reportedly payed 3,030 rupees ($50.5) per share instead of their original offer of 1,440 rupees. Mallya made an even larger windfall when his shares in United Spirits jumped 2.9% on Wednesday.
The Brits now own 56% of India’s United Spirits, makers of the popular Royal Challenge whisky, for which Mallya’s cricket team, the Bangalore Royal Challengers, is named.
This man needs all the money he can get.

United Bank of India asks Mallya, Kingfisher directors to appear on July 9

Kolkata: City-based lender United Bank of India has asked Vijay Mallya and three other directors of grounded Kingfisher Airlines to appear before a panel of the bank at the head office here on July 9.

"The recovery department of the bank has sent a letter to them asking chairman Vijay Mallya and three other directors of Kingfisher Airlines to appear on July 9 before the grievance redressal committee of UBI here," bank's Executive Director Sanjay Arya told PTI here.
Arya said that they had been asked to appear so that they could get a chance to defend themselves before the bank declares them as wilful defaulter.
Read news in full 29/06/14 Economic Times

‘Naming Vijay Mallya a wilful defaulter tough’

Mumbai: Lenders to grounded Kingfisher Airline Ltd may be routinely using the phrase ‘wilful defaulter’ while discussing its chairman, the beleaguered business baron Vijay Mallya, also the chairman of the UB group, but it may be difficult for them to actually declare him a defaulter legally as there is no indication of fraud by Kingfisher Airlines, senior bankers told Cogencis.

“The Kingfisher Airlines case is a clear case of a venture that was an adventure, which banks also joined in. There is no case of fraud as the key issue was more of a mismatch between revenues projected and earned,” a chairman and managing director of a large Mumbai-based bank said.

Mallya's stake in Kingfisher Airlines drops below 10%

On Wednesday, IDBI Trusteeship invoked and transferred pledged equity shares worth 7.31 per cent in Kingfisher Airlines to the depository account of lenders. As a result, UB Group chief Mallya’s holding in the now defunct airline has fallen to 8.55 per cent from 15.86 per cent in March.
At the beginning of this year, his stake in the airline stood at 30.14 per cent.
Following IDBI Trusteeship’s move on Wednesday, lenders to the airline have invoked all its pledged shares. About a week ago, Kolkata-based United Bank of India (UBI) had issued a wilful defaulter’s notice on Mallya, after the consortium of lenders to the airline failed to make headway in recovering dues.
UBI has exposure of Rs 400 crore to Kingfisher Airlines, which it has classified as a non-performing asset.