Federal Bank recovers Rs 10 cr dues from defunct Kingfisher Air

Federal Bank, a part of the consortium that had given loans to Kingfisher Airlines, has recovered Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) till date and is making efforts to get back the remaining dues from the beleaguered carrier.  

Federal Bank Managing Director Shyam Srinivasan told PTI, "So far we have recovered Rs 10 crore ( Rs 100 million) from Kingfisher Airlines. We had an exposure of Rs 85 crore (Rs 850 million) in the company,"  

The bank expects more to come from the ongoing recovery process of the consortium, he said.  

The consortium of 17 banks, led by State Bank of India (SBI), has an outstanding debt of about Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) from the now-grounded carrier.  

SBI has the maximum exposure, over Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion), in the Vijay Mallya-led airline.

It is followed by Punjab National Bank with Rs 800 crore, IDBI at Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion), Bank of India at Rs 650 crore (Rs 6.50 billion) and Bank of Baroda Rs 550 crore (Rs 5.50 billion).  

As part of the recovery process, banks in February last year decided to sell a portion of the collateral with them, including shares of group companies United Spirits Ltd and Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd, Mallya's Goa villa, Kingfisher House in Mumbai and the Kingfisher brand, which was valued at over Rs 4,000 crore ( Rs 40 billion) at the time it was pledged.  

Srinivasan said the bank is making all efforts to reduce its non-performing assets, or bad loans.  

The bank's gross NPA came down to 2.83 per cent at the end of the third quarter from 3.85 per cent at the end of December 2012. During this period, its net NPA dropped to 0.86 per cent from 0.92 per cent.  

He further said, "We expect the current trend of NPA reduction to continue in the current quarter,” The bank has been focusing on quality assets to reduce fresh slippage, he added.