State Bank of India on Thursday said it will do
whatever appropriate to recover the loans that banks have made to the
beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines (KFA).
The cash-strapped airline owes about Rs 7,000
crore to a consortium of 17 banks, including SBI, IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda and
Bank of India.
SBI Managing Director S. Visvanathan said: “Our
effort is to recover the maximum from the company by all possible methods.
There are many methods by which we (banks) recover money.
“We let the company run and they give us the
money back. We wind up the company, sell the assets and get the money back. We
sell the company itself and get the money back. We will do whatever is
appropriate in the best interest of the group of banks.”
Pointing out that SBI had fully provided for its
exposure of about Rs 1,500 crore to KFA, the top SBI official said “(from now
on) we are only going to look to the upside, if there is any.”
Banks are looking at KFA from all aspects to
ensure that the money that has been lent to it is recovered.
The current lock-out at the airline due to
strike by pilots and engineers is a concern, said Visvanathan. He added that
the revival plan (to resume operations) will be shared by KFA in the third or
fourth week of this month.
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