Kingfisher did offer to pay back its loans, State Bank Of India confirms

SBI confirms Kingfisher offer to pay up

The defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. has offered to settle the dues with the State Bank of India (SBI)-led consortium of banks on Wednesday, which has been confirmed by the bank.

The state-run SBI said in a terse one paragraph statement in Mumbai, “The bank along with other consortium members will examine the same (offer).”

He had offered to pay Rs.4,000 crore ($601.55 Million) to settle outstanding dues against the grounded airline, Mallya told the Supreme Court through his counsel, earlier in the day.

[dropcap color=”#008040″ boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”8px” class=”” id=””]K[/dropcap]ingfisher chairman Mallaya, who is out of the country since March 2, also told the apex court that he had offered another Rs.2,000 crore ($300.66 Million) he expected to get if he would win a law suit against US multinational General Electric.

Mallya’s counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan told Justice Kurien Joseph and Justice R.F. Nariman that his client (Mallya) had made the proposal to settle the dues to the SBI chief general manager early on Wednesday (through video conference).

The banks’ consortium’s counsel S.S. Naganand told the division bench that the SBI needed a week’s time to consider Mallya’s proposal to settle the dues.

Accepting the plea, the bench gave the consortium a week to respond and posted the next hearing to April 7.

Mallya and the airline jointly owe Rs.7,800 crore ($1172.44 Million) to the consortium, including Rs.1,600 crore ($240.50 Million) to the SBI.

The SBI and Punjab National Bank had declared Mallya, the airline and his holding firm (United Breweries Holdings Ltd) as ‘wilful defaulters’ in 2015.

Besides SBI, other banks that gave loans to Kingfisher include State Bank of Baroda, State Bank of Mysore, Axis Bank, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, UCO Bank and United Bank of India.

Notes:
1. IANS
2. The conversion rate used in this article is 1 US Dollar = 66.52 Rupees.