Lenders of beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines said that they will sell the shares of its holding company, United Breweries Holdings, to recover about Rs 500 crore.

Banks will go after the ‘low-hanging fruits’ (easily recoverable) first once the recovery proceedings are initiated. The sale could happen in the current quarter itself. They will also invoke corporate guarantee of the holding company (UB Holdings) and personal guarantee of Vijay Mallya, say bankers.

“Of the Rs 1,700 crore, we have provided for 97 per cent of the total exposure and no further provisioning is expected,” said Diwakar Gupta, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, State Bank of India.

The total collateral, including personal guarantee, pledged with the consortium of lenders is Rs 6,500 crore.

Meanwhile, refuting bankers’ claims on collateral, United Breweries said that the brand ‘Kingfisher’ “has not been hypothecated or pledged” by the company to any lender to secure its loans.

In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday, the company said that United Breweries Ltd is the owner of brand ‘Kingfisher’ registered under the respective Trademark classes pertaining to alcoholic beverages.

The company further added that no shares of the company were pledged to the lenders of Kingfisher Airlines.

A consortium of 17 banks, including State Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank, have a loan exposure of about Rs 7,000 crore to the grounded Kingfisher Airline, which was once the second biggest airline of the country.

nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in

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