Lenders will examine the second viability study on the beleaguered Kingfisher Airlines put together by SBI Caps before taking a call on committing funds.

Though the airline has become a non performing asset for banks such as SBI, BOB, IDBI, and Corporation Bank; there are a few banks in which the account is believed to be standard.

These banks could come to the airline's rescue by extending fund and non-fund based assistance once it puts its house in order — gets a foreign partner to infuse equity, imports aviation turbine fuel, improves operational efficiency by turning into a full-service airline, and reconfigures the aircraft mix, said a bank official from one of the banks that has an exposure to the company.

Mr Vijay Mallya, Chairman, Kingfisher Airlines, had a meeting with bank officials at the Mumbai headquarters of State Bank of India on Friday. Bankers said Mr Mallya sounded confident that he would be able to rope in a foreign partner soon.

Kingfisher Airlines has asked for a fresh loan of Rs 200 crore to tide over its immediate crisis, said an official from another of the banks that have lent to the company. Whether any bank would be willing to put ‘good money after bad ' remains to be seen, the official said.

In the December quarter, the airline suffered a net loss of Rs 444 crore, hit by a 37 per cent increase in fuel costs and a steep depreciation in the rupee. Kingfisher Air's total loss for the nine-month period stands at Rs 1,167.48 crore,

A total of 13 banks has a total exposure of about Rs 7,000 crore in Kingfisher.

> kram@thehindu.co.in

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