Diageo Cash Offer For Kingfisher Lenders
Those who have sold the shares of U B Holdings Ltd and KFA Ltd following herd mentality, should now bite their nails. You cannot make money in the markets, if you are so fickle. Risk needs to be taken in the market to make big.
The United Breweries (UB) group said in its statement that it was in talks with the consortium of 17 banks and was working “with them on ways to bring down their exposure, inter alia, from the proceeds of the Diageo transaction”.
The statement came after banks, which have lent about Rs 7,000 crore to the Vijay Mallya-led airline, said they would proceed towards recovering their loans by taking over assets which had been pledged, including Mallya’s personal assets.
The grounded carrier and its parent claimed the discussions with lenders were continuing and they had not received any formal communication on asset recovery.
“We have received no formal communication from the banks till date. We are in continuing discussions with them on ways to bring down their exposure. The banks explicitly support the transaction with Diageo and would work with us in finding an orderly method of disposal of some of the pledged shares to Diageo, if appropriate,” a Kingfisher spokesperson said in a statement.
In November last year, UK’s Diageo agreed to buy a 53.4 per cent stake in UB Group-controlled United Spirits Ltd for $2.1 billion.
Kingfisher’s statement today comes a day after the lenders expressed hope of recovering a large portion of their dues by monetising pledged securities.
“Selling the securities given as collateral is the plan,” Shyamal Acharya, SBI deputy managing director (mid-corporate accounts), had said in Mumbai yesterday.
Acharya said the consortium had shares of listed entities such as United Spirits as collateral from which bankers should be able to realise Rs 500 crore. He had also indicated that the lenders had rights over the Kingfisher brand.
The UB group, however, yesterday said that its brand Kingfisher was not pledged to the State Bank of India-led consortium.
“United Breweries Limited is the owner of the brand Kingfisher, registered under the respective trademark classes pertaining to alcoholic beverages. The brand Kingfisher has not been hypothecated or pledged by the company to any lender to secure its loans,” it had said in a statement.
Besides, the bankers have residual rights over securities held by Srei Infrastructure Finance, which comes to another Rs 500 crore.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
Note: I am having mild fever and severe head ache accompanied by other problems associated with viral fever. Hence, this blog might not be updated during the next couple of days. In the same way, the Paid Blog, might also not be updated during the next couple of days. However, I shall try my best to update the same, unless the situation turns too worse.
