Mallya surprises KFA staff with month's salary, CEO meets DGCA

February 19, 2013

Mallya_surprises

Mumbai, Feb 19: A week after its lenders decided to recover their dues, cash-strapped Kingfisher Airlines has started paying salaries to its employees apart from approaching the aviation regulator seeking licence renewal, sources said today.

"Some of us have received salary dues. Those in the lowest package as well as some engineers and pilots have also a month's salary dues," sources told PTI.

The airline has not been paying salary to its employees since May last year, while it had started delaying salaries much before the crisis broke out last October. The sources also said airline Chief Executive Sanjay Agarwal is in the capital to meet the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to make a fresh request to resume operations. However, both the developments could not be officially confirmed.

Earlier in the day, Kingfisher shares rose as much as 5 per cent on the BSE, the maximum permissible limit on a day, after one of its promoters, United Breweries Holdings, hiked its loan limit for the ailing carrier to Rs 750 crore from Rs 300 crore.

UB Holdings has sought approval from its shareholders to revise the lending limit for Kingfisher and to authorise its board of directors to take necessary actions in this regard, the company had said yesterday.

Reacting to the development, shares of the company touched an intra-day high of Rs 10.53 on the BSE, higher by 5 per cent from its previous closing price at 1230 hours.

"To accommodate further lending to Kingfisher if required, it is proposed to realign these limits further by increasing the lending limit to KFA from Rs 300 crore to Rs 750 crore and reducing the investment limit from Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 750 crore, thus maintaining the overall limit of Rs 1,500 crore..," UB Holdings said in a shareholders' notice.

The revision was done to facilitate the conversion of loans given to Kingfisher into convertible/no-convertible securities, as required by the debt recast agreement between the airline and a consortium of its lenders.

It can also be noted that last Tuesday, the lenders to the airline, which number as many as 17 banks which together had extended Rs 7,000 crore to the company, had resolved to recall their loans to the airline, which had been grounded since October one last, saying more than enough time was given to the management to revive the crippled airline.

The lenders consortium leader State Bank, which has an outstanding dud loan of over Rs 1,700 crore, had said as a first step, lenders would monetise the collaterals given to them from other group companies like Mangalore Fertilisers and the flagship United Spirits, in which 54 per cent has been sold to the British spirits major Diageo for around Rs 11,170 crore.

However, the UB Group has denied that it had given USL shares as collaterals to the lenders as well as the brand Kingfisher, which also covers its beer business.

The bankers are expecting to recover around Rs 1,000 crore from these securities before the end of this fiscal itself.

Yesterday, SBI chairman P Chaudhuri had said in Chennai that he was hopeful of recovering a "good portion of his Rs 1,700 crore dues from the airline."

"Of the total dues of Rs 7,000 crore... so far, the approach was to revive the airline. But now we have decided to realise the securities provided by the airline. Our endeavour is to recover the full amount," Choudhuri said.

Noting that recovery of dues would be after completing a "complicated, long, legal battle", he said the bank has made provisions to collect Rs 1,650 crore of the Rs 1,700 crore through realisation of securities.

The lenders also hope to take only a small haircut from the entire fiasco as they have collaterals worth Rs 6,500 crore from group companies, excluding the brand Kingfisher, which in good times was valued at Rs 4,200 crore.

The airline, launched in May 2005 as a gift to Vijay Mallya's son Siddharth on his 18th birthday has never made any profit and today has nearly Rs 18,000 crore which include bank loans, accumulated losses, salary arrears, vendors dues and tax dues among others.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 22,2020

New Delhi, Jul 22: Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday urged the newly elected members of the House to uphold rules and procedures of the House while discharging their duties as the lawmakers for the country.

"In his remarks at the end of the administration of oath/affirmation to the new members of Rajya Sabha in the Chamber of the House today, Shri Naidu urged them to hold themselves to account with regard to their conduct both within and outside the House, so as to enhance the standing of the institution in the eyes of the people," read a press note.

The note further read that Naidu suggested the members to "question themselves if they had acted to enhance the dignity of the institution or to the contrary at the end of each day during the session and if their conduct was ethical during the inter-session period".

He said, "Answers to these simple questions would guide you on the right path."

He further stressed, "Ensuring rule of law is the spirit of our law of the land (Constitution). It shall begin with your compliance with the rules and procedures of this House."

Of the 61 members elected to Rajya Sabha from 20 States in the recent biennial and bye-polls, 45 made oath/affirmation today including 36 who have been elected for the first time. 12 sitting members have been re-elected which include Sharad Pawar, Digvijaya Singh, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Prem Chand Gupta, Harivansh and Ramdas Athawale, who took oath today.

Those elected for the first time to Rajya Sabha include Mallikarjun Kharge, Jyotiraditya M Scindia and KC Venugopal who have vast legislative experience and taken oath today. Those members who could not make oath/affirmation will do so during the ensuing Monsoon Session.

"Members including three women made oath/affirmation in 10 languages viz., Telugu, Bodo, Kannada, Manipuri, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi and English," the note read further.

"Today's oath-taking has been organized to enable the newly elected members to participate in the committee meetings which are underway at once and in the monsoon session which is to follow. I hope to nominate all of you on different committees in a day or two. #RajyaSabha," the Vice President's official handle tweeted earlier on Wednesday.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 26,2020

Mar 26: As Kashmir reported its first COVID-19 death on Thursday, Islamic scholars urged people to follow the Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines on funeral and burial of those who die due to coronavirus pandemic.

“Medical science can’t be ignored and whatever directions there are in the (MHA) guidelines should be followed. As far as the funeral of the person, only family members should participate in the funeral and burial after wearing the protection kits,” the scholars said.

The MHA has stressed that there should be no bathing, kissing, hugging and reciting of verses while the body should be transported in a secured bag. Health experts have stressed that the grave for the person should be dug eight feet deep instead of normal six feet.

“The body of the person should be transported in a secured bag and the vehicle in which he is transported has to be decontaminated by the trained staff who should be wearing N-95 masks and protection equipment,” read the MHA guidelines.

Kashmir witnessed the first death of a COVID-19 patient from uptown city Hyderpora, who had a travel history of outside J&K as he was part of a ‘Tableegi Jamaat’.

Dr Naveed, Head of Department, at Chest Diseases Hospital Srinagar, said that no one from the family should go closer to the body and if someone from the family wants to see the face, he/she has to wear a complete protective gear.

“Burial bath is not recommended for the body. Grave for him should be dug eight feet deep instead of normal six feet,” he said.

As far as funeral prayers, he said, those intending to offer funeral should wear protective gear and maintain sufficient distance between the body and people.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 7,2020

Jan 7: A Delhi Court today issued death warrant against four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. The hanging will take place on January 22 at 7 am.

During the hearing, the prosecution said there was no application pending before any court or the President right now by any of the convicts and the review petition of all the convicts was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the court had reserved order on issuing of death warrants against four death row convicts.

Today's order comes days after mother of the victim in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case moved the Supreme Court on opposing the plea filed by one of the four death-row convicts seeking review of its 2017 judgement awarding him death penalty.

The apex court had on July 9 last year dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts — Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24) — in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.

The 23-year-old girl was gangraped and murdered by six men on a moving bus on 16 December 2012. The main accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail during the trial. Another accused was a minor at the time of the commission of the crime and was sent to a reform facility and released after three years.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.