Kingfisher-lenders meet inconclusive

Mumbai - The much-anticipated meeting between the management of the crippled Kingfisher Airlines with the consortium of 17 banks, which have a combined stressed exposure of over Rs 7,500 crore to airline, on Thursday failed to make any headway.

The meeting, held here at the State Bank of India headquarters here, was attended by most of the lenders and the airlines’ Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Aggarwal and Chief Financial Officer H G Raghunath.

Though the airline made a presentation, they could not commit on fresh fund infusion, according to bankers.

Lenders’ sources said the meeting could not make any headway as the company could not commit on fresh fund infusion.

They said that they have appointed HDFC Securities to value two of the already pledged properties of Kingfisher--the Airline House in suburban Andheri here which has a market value of around Rs 90 crore and a villa in Goa, having a market value of Rs 30 crore.

According to banking sources, the existing 17 lenders also discussed the loan sell-off by ICICI Bank (worth Rs 430 crore) early this week to a hedge fund run by Srei Infra Finances.

Bankers, who have over 20 per cent stake in the airlines following last Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR), also said they may meet next month.

At the last meeting of the consortium in March, the bankers insisted on the promoters bringing in at least 50 per cent of the fresh funding requirement (around Rs 2,000 crore) as a precondition for any new advances to the airline, after it stopped servicing its loan from January.