Indian banks reject Vijay Mallya’s debt plan

Indian banks have rejected an offer by Vijay Mallya, the erstwhile liquor baron, to settle the country’s most high-profile loan dispute by repaying about half of the $1.3bn owed by his defunct Kingfisher Airlines. Informed of the decision by 17 lenders at a hearing on Thursday, India’s supreme court ordered the tycoon to provide a full account of his global assets, and those of his wife and children. Mallya, until 2013 the controlling shareholder at United Spirits, India’s largest spirits company, is embroiled in a bitter battle with lenders to Kingfisher Airlines, which collapsed with $1.3b of outstanding loans in 2012. While certain Indian commentators cheered the banks’ tough stand against Mallya, some analysts suggested lenders should have accepted his proposal to repay about $650m. The 17 banks, led by State Bank of India, had been resigned to a long legal battle to recover Kingfisher’s unpaid debts.<br/>