Beer baron slams 'hysterical' media focus on Kingfisher dues

Vijay Mallya, the Indian liquor tycoon who started Kingfisher Airlines, said he’s in talks with lenders to pay the carrier’s dues and slammed the media for what he described as a “near-hysterical campaign” against him. Kingfisher Airlines was one of India’s leading carriers from 2005 until it stopped flying in 2012 as debt and losses mounted. The airline owes about 70b rupees ($1.04b) to lenders, SBICAP Trustee, leader of a 17-bank consortium, said in a notice on its website last month. Efforts are being made to reach a one-time settlement with lenders, and any deal will also cover future payments to them, Mallya said in an e-mailed statement to media Sunday night. Lenders have a total of 24.94b rupees of cash and securities available to them that they can put toward the dues. The Enforcement Directorate, a Finance Ministry agency that examines violations of rules relating to foreign transactions, is investigating Kingfisher Airlines and will question Mallya soon, the Press Trust of India on Monday reported. “Personally, I am not a borrower or a judgment defaulter,” Mallya, the tycoon behind India’s best-selling beer, said. Mallya has been called a “willful defaulter” in Indian media reports and accused of causing “continuous pain and agony” to employees for not paying their salaries. “I have neither the intention nor any reason to abscond,” Mallya said. “I feel that the time has come to clarify my position in order to avoid this relentless attack on my reputation.”<br/>