2 UB Group Firms Settled Dues Just Before Kingfisher Sought Fresh Loan From IDBI: CBI
UB Group was a promoter of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Just a month before the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. approached IDBI Bank for a corporate loan of Rs 950 crore in October 2009, two UB Group companies had settled their outstanding dues and obtained 'no dues' certificates from the bank.
This was mentioned in the chargesheet filed by CBI on Tuesday in a special court in Mumbai.
UB Group was a promoter of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
According to the chargesheet, the UB Group had dealings with IDBI Bank in the past.
Its (UB group) associate concerns WIE Engineering and United Breweries Ltd. (UBHL) had defaulted against the credit facilities from IDBI in the past. However, just before KFA approached IDBI for a corporate loan of Rs 950 crore, both these group companies settled the matters by way of one time settlement (OTS), pursuant to which UBL was issued a no dues certificate. The bank issued no dues certificate to the borrower in October 2009 prior to the sanction of fresh loans of Rs 150 crore, Rs 200 crore and Rs 750 crore.CBI Chargesheet
The CBI, which is investigating the IDBI loan default case involving beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, has said that he himself stood as a personal guarantor for availing loans totalling up to Rs 1,300 crore.
The investigation also revealed that the conspiracy to cheat IDBI was allegedly hatched among Mallya, former CFO of Kingfisher Airlines A Raghunathan, former chairman of IDBI Yogesh Aggarwal, IDBI executive BK Batra and others in 2009. Thereafter, Mallya met Aggarwal and Batra to seek loans from IDBI, the chargesheet said.
"In order to facilitate sanction of loans, the past defaults in the account of UB Engineering (another group company) and WIE Engineering were settled and no dues certificates were issued," it said.
Subsequently, Mallya directed Raghunathan via a mail in October 2009 to immediately fill the application for seeking corporate loan of Rs 950 crore from IDBI, it added.
Kingfisher Airlines also submitted a proposal through Raghunathan to seek credit facilities of Rs 950 crore as corporate loan from IDBI for clearing the accumulated dues of creditors and for meeting additional working capital requirements, the chargesheet said.
He (Raghunathan) mentioned that KFA required urgent financial assistance of corporate loan of Rs 2,000 crore for clearing pressing dues of creditors and working capital, out of which corporate loan of Rs 500 crore by SBI, Rs 150 crore by Bank of India, Rs 200 crore by Bank of Baroda and Rs 200 crore by United Bank of India were sanctioned and disbursed.CBI Chargesheet
Thus, the company had raised Rs 1,050 crore through such banks, while the remaining portion of Rs 950 crore was untied.
Raghunathan also said that SBI had appraised the total requirement of Rs 2,000 crore and the copy of the note in this regard would be shared with IDBI Bank by Kingfisher Airlines. He requested IDBI to sanction the said credit facilities (950 crore) repayable by January 2014, the chargesheet added.