Banks to recover Rs 1,000 cr from Kingfisher Airlines in current quarter: SBI

Kingfisher lenders hope to recover up to Rs 1,000 crore of their dues by monetising the securities in the March quarter itself, a senior official of the State Bank of India said today.

"That (selling the securities given as collaterals) is the plan," Shyamal Acharya, deputy managing director (mid-corporates accounts) at SBI, told reporters at the bank's December earnings press conference here.

He was asked specifically for a timeline to recover the dues from the grounded Bangalore-based airline.

Mr Acharya explained that the consortium of 17 banks, led by SBI, has an outstanding of over Rs 7,000 crore from the carrier but has shares of listed entities like United Spirits as collaterals which should realise Rs 500 crore. That apart, they have the Kingfisher Airlines brand as a security.

Additionally, the consortium has a residual right over the securities held by Srei Infrastructure Finance, which comes to Rs 500 crore. Srei bought this from ICICI Bank in April last year.

"These are low-hanging fruits which should give us Rs 1,000 crore. Balance is corporate guarantees, personal guarantees and properties," Mr Acharya said, adding the total collaterals held by the banks comes at Rs 6,500 crore.

SBI has the maximum exposure, over Rs 1,600 crore, in the Vijay Mallya-led airline, followed by PNB (with Rs 800 crore, IDBI at Rs 800 crore, Bank of India at Rs 650 crore and Bank of Baroda has Rs 550 crore.

Other banks include United Bank of India, which has an exposure of Rs 430 crore, Central Bank of India (Rs 410 crore), Uco Bank (Rs 320 crore), Corporation Bank (Rs 310 crore), State Bank of Mysore, (Rs 150 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 140 crore), Federal Bank (Rs 90 crore), Punjab & Sind Bank (Rs 60 crore) and Axis Bank (Rs 50 crore).

Lenders outside the consortium are Srei Infrastructure (Rs 430 crore), Jammu & Kashmir Bank (Rs 80 crore) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 50 crore).

Banks in the consortium, which on Tuesday decided to start the recovery process, may individually start sending legal notices for the recovery to the airline in 10-15 days, he said.