New Delhi : Indian banks are working very closely with various agencies, including in the UK, to recover maximum out of assets owned by Vijay Mallya after a British court allowed them to search and seize properties of the fugitive liquor baron, SBI MD Arijit Basu said on Friday.
“We have been able to come this far because of efforts that was taken in a very coordinated manner by all agencies including the government. We are very happy with the court order and with this kind of order we have we should be able to go after those assets,” he told reporters here.
The SBI is the leader of consortium of 13 banks that lent about Rs 9,000 crore to Mallya’s now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Without giving a specific number, Basu said: “there are various laws which operate between different countries that allow us to go beyond our national borders. With the effort that we have made, we have got worldwide freezing order. Going by the assets that we have, we feel that it will be significant amount of the debt if not whole amount”.
Asked about timeline for auction, he said, banks are working very closely with all agencies and lawyer in London as to how High Court Enforcement Order (HCEO) can be enforced. SBI has appointed valuer to assess the value of assets of Mallya. Asked about recovery in India, Basu said, the consortium has recovered Rs 963 crore from auction of Mallya’s Indian assets. The order grants permission to the UK High Court Enforcement Officer to enter the 62-year-old tycoon’s properties in Hertfordshire, near London.
It permits the officer and his agents’ entry to Ladywalk and Bramble Lodge in Tewin, Welwyn, where Mallya is currently based. However, it is not an instruction to enter, which means the banks have the option to use the order as one of the means to recover funds of around 1.145 billion pounds.
