Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) has seen two of its group company United Breweries (Holdings) and Kingfisher Finvest India having pledge their entire holding in the company. The group companies have taken this step as part of the requirements under the airline's debt recast package.
United Breweries has pledged 19.96 crore shares, or 40.1 percent of KFA's total outstanding shares while Kingfisher Finvest has pledged 6.35 crore shares amounting to 12.75 percent of the outstanding shares.
Recently in April this year, State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank had together picked up close to 11% stake in the debt- trapped Kingfisher Airlines as part of debt recast process. SBI had been allotted 2.8 crore equity shares on preferential basis on account of conversion of compulsorily convertible preference shares under corporate debt restructuring (CDR). As a result of this allotment of shares, the SBI’s stake in the airline is 5.67%.
On the other hand, ICICI Bank was also allotted 2.6 crore shares against the loan it had given to the airline. With this allotment, the bank's equity holding in the airline stood at 5.3%.
