Mumbai : State-owned United Bank of India has become the first of the 17 lenders to publicly admit that it no longer expects to recover its dues from the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines, reports PTI.
Interestingly, the Kolkata-based lender was the first bank to attempt to get Vijay Mallya, the chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, tagged as a wilful defaulter. Mallya and UB Group, however, challenged this tag in the court.
The lenders have so far been able to recover just about Rs 1,000 crore from Kingfisher Airlines out of their over Rs 7,500 crore exposure (excluding penal interest), since they recalled the loan in February 2013, by selling pledged shares in group companies.
“Now, nothing is happening on the Kingfisher account and we are not getting any amount. We may ultimately get a few more crores by selling that building (Kingfisher House in Mumbai) and other collaterals,” United Bank of India Managing Director and CEO P Srinivas told PTI.
“In last two years, we lost interest payment and we may be able to recover that much and the principal amount we may not,” he said. The bank had extended Rs 400 crore in a consortium lending when Kingfisher Airlines was still flying. The airline was grounded in October 2012.
