Kingfisher says Goa villa is not up for sale

Mumbai, Jul 6: A day after admitting that it had long ago requested the lenders to sell two of its properties pledged with the banks--the

House in Mumbai and Kingfisher Villa in

--the airline today clarified that the Goan property is not on the block.

"The reported "sale" of Kingfisher Villa and Kingfisher House are factually incorrect. Kingfisher Villa (in Goa) is owned by United Breweries Holdings and was offered as security to Axis Bank whose loan was incorporated into the lenders consortium," the airline said in an official statement last evening.

The statement further claimed that "United Breweries Holdings had voluntarily applied to the consortium in February for permission to replace the security value of Kingfisher Villa with equivalent cash."

Yesterday several bankers had told PTI, after a meeting of the 17-bank consortium with the airline management, that they had hired HDFC Securities to do a valuation of these properties, which are valued at Rs 120 crore according to the current market price and come up with a report within 15 days.

Yesterday, the airline, in a statement, while denying any deadline by bankers, had admitted that the airline itself had long ago proposed sale of the idle Kingfisher House and villa in Goa to the bankers a few months back. However, today it reiterated that the Kingfisher House in suburban Marol area is on the block.

"As far as Kingfisher House is concerned, this property is now vacant following the move to The Qube. This property is intended for sale and once again, the consortium was voluntarily approached for permission to sell with the proceeds being paid to the banks," the official statement said.

The company also denied there was no talk about loan recovery- the airline owes Rs 7,500 crore and accumulated interest from January to 17 lenders, led by the consortium leader State Bank, which has an exposure of Rs 1400 crore at the meeting with the bankers yesterday.

"The meeting of the bank consortium was convened in the normal course with a properly circulated agenda. There was no discussion on loan recovery or forced sale of any collateral," it said. On the number of aircraft it has, the airline said it has 44 aircrafts endorsed in its AoP and intends to operationalise its full fleet post recapitalisation.

PTI