Mallya to appeal against tribunal’s recovery order: Kingfisher official

Bengaluru, Jan 20 (IANS) Industrialist Vijay Mallya will appeal against a Debt Recovery Tribunal order to recover Rs 6,203 crore along with interest from his properties for defaulting on bank loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, a company official said on Friday.

"We will file an appeal against the DRT's order on Thursday after we get its copy," a Mallya-owned United Breweries (UB) Group's spokesman said.

Allowing a joint petition filed in June 2013 by a consortium of 17 banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), the Tribunal's Bengaluru bench said the combined unpaid loans of Rs 9,091 crore, including compound interest, be recovered from the properties of Mallya and Kingfisher worth Rs 6,203 crore ($909 million).

Tribunal's Presiding Officer K. Srinivasan also directed Mallya's defaulter holding firms -- UBHL, Kingfisher Finvest and the airline -- to pay an interest of 11.5 per cent per annum on the due amount (Rs 6,203 crore) retrospectively since the case was admitted on July 26, 2013.

"As the Tribunal has decreed banks to recover the dues from the airline and its holding company (UBHL), it is for them (banks) to decide on how to go about it," a lawyer associated with the case told IANS on condition of anonymity.

Mallya can, however, appeal against the order in the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal in Chennai after paying 50 per cent of the amount and interest as decreed by the DRT.

Since the loans were given against various sureties, including shares of the holding company and its assets as collaterals, the banks have to assess their value to recover the amount specified by the Tribunal, hinted the counsel.

"The Tribunal's debt recovery officer will decide on the recovery process in consultation with the banks and the guarantors to the loans," said the counsel.

Asked if the attachment includes properties the banks tried to sell but could not, the counsel said the debt recovery officer would decide on the list of properties.

The SBI and state-run Punjab National Bank had declared Mallya, the airline and its holding firm UBHL (United Breweries Holdings Ltd.) as "wilful defaulters" in 2015.

Besides the SBI, other state-run and private banks that gave loans to Kingfisher include Bank of Baroda, State Bank of Mysore, Axis Bank, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, UCO Bank and United Bank of India.

The flamboyant 61-year-old Mallya is reported to be in Britain since he left India on March 2, 2016 after the consortium moved the Tribunal in February last year to expedite the hearing on its debt recovery petition.