Kingfisher crisis: Banks to sell Vijay Mallya's Goa villa, non-core assets

New Delhi: In a major blow to the cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines, banks on Thursday reportedly decided to launch their debt recovery process against the ailing company. Sources said that the bankers had decided to sell off Kingfisher's non-core assets that include Kingfisher House in Mumbai and a villa belonging to the airline's chief, Vijay Mallya, in Goa.

Sources said that the decision was taken after a group of banks, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), met on Thursday morning to review the airline financial position.

An SBI official reportedly said that the lenders might be able to recover around Rs 135 crore from the property sale of Kingfisher.

Kingfisher, however, maintains that the reports are wrong and that there was no discussion on debt recovery proceedings at the bankers\' meet.

Reports further said that the airline had been given 15 days to come up with steps to improve its operations.

Kingfisher, however, denied the reports claiming the news was false.

"Following misleading and factually incorrect reports appearing in a section of the press, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd would like to clarify that it is patently wrong and false to claim or state that banks have started recovery proceedings after a meeting of the consortium of bankers today," the Kingfisher statement said.

"The meeting was scheduled as an update meeting and there was no discussion on commencement of recovery proceedings," it added.

It further said, "Kingfisher House (in Mumbai) has been lying vacant after the staff moved to our new offices at The Qube in Mumbai, and at that time itself, on our own accord, we approached the banks with a proposal to liquidate this unutilised asset and at today’s meeting we raised the issue of this pending approval."

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