A consortium of 14 banks that have lent money to Kingfisher Airlines Ltd moved the Karnataka High Court on Friday against disbursement of the entire amount realised from the recent sale of 13.61 crore shares of United Spirits Ltd (USL) by UB (Holdings) Ltd. to British liquor major Diageo Plc.
UB Holdings is the guarantor for Kingfisher Airlines.
In its application, the consortium, led by State Bank of India (SBI), has pointed out that it has to recover around Rs. 6,203 crore dues as on May 31 from Kingfisher and UB, being secured creditors.
It asked the court to direct UB to deposit the entire amount realised from the share sale, which was carried out with the permission of the court.
The High Court, on May 24, had granted conditional permission to UB Holdings to sell the shares while hearing the petitions filed by some of the unsecured creditors seeking recovery of dues by winding up Kingfisher and UB.
‘Facts suppressed’
Appearing for the consortium, Senior Counsel S.S. Naganand complained that UB had filed an application for selling the USL sales held by it by suppressing certain facts from the court.
He contended that UB had assured the consortium that it would pay the dues to the banks from the sale of shares.
Relying on a newspaper report that UB has earned around Rs 3,135 crore from the sale of shares with the court’s permission, the consortium sought a direction to UB to deposit the entire amount with the court until further order.
Justice Ram Mohan Reddy, who heard the arguments, adjourned further hearing to July 22 while asking UB to file its response.
The High Court also adjourned to July 22 the applications filed by some of employees of Kingfisher to be part of the proceedings for seeking payment of salary dues to them for several months.