Led by State Bank of India (SBI), lenders to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) have approached the debt recovery tribunal (DRT) to attach Vijay Mallya’s share of UB City in Bengaluru, bankers aware of the move told FE.

According to a senior banker, the property is valued at Rs 500 crore, of which Mallya’s share would be worth around Rs 160 crore. “Although this would not cover the value of our loans, we would still like to recover some portion of it,” the banker said. UB City’s website says it has a total built up area of 16 lakh sq ft and comprises UB Tower, Kingfisher Plaza, Concorde, Canberra & Comet Blocks.

That apart, a banker said that lenders have moved DRT in Bengaluru to attach Rs 1.7 crore of dividends that Mangalore Chemicals Ferilisers (MCF) paid United Breweries Holdings (UBHL), Kingfisher Finvest India. As on June 2015, UBHL and Kingfisher Finvest own 15.05% and 2.01%, respectively, of MCF.

“All attempts to recover dues from Vijay Mallya are being made but he is thwarting our attempts to take over his properties by seeking adjournments in courts,” the banker said.

Set up to assist banks recover its dues, the DRTs have not been an effective tool owing to the huge burden of cases. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had said the amount recovered from cases decided in 2013-14 under DRTs was Rs 30,590 crore while the value of loans sought to be recovered was Rs 2.36 lakh crore.

Thus, only 13% of the outstanding NPAs in the tribunals were recovered in FY14.

According to RBI data, loans worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore were pending at 33 tribunals till FY14, up from Rs 1.43 lakh crore in FY13.

Meanwhile, bankers’ attempts to take possession of Kingfisher Villa in Goa are stuck in a judicial tangle; United Spirits claimed it had been a tenant since 2005 and therefore, banks could not sell the property without its approval.

United Spirits Limited (USL) took the consortium to Mapusa Civil Court in Goa citing Portuguese Civil Code and requesting the court to block the auctions. The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court had granted its nod to the lenders to take possession of Kingfisher Villa last year.

Meanwhile, SBI’s efforts to track down properties owned by Vijay Mallya through a detective agency yielded no results as detectives were unable to trace any property registered in his name.

The detectives looked for properties and found that none were registered in his name and even his residence is registered in someone else’s name and he is registered as a tenant.

Kingfisher, which has not flown since 2012, has dues of over Rs 7,000 crore to a consortium of 17 bankers who have been trying to recover their dues by selling securities pledged by the firm. These included real estate and shares in multiple group entities.

Strings attached:

* UB City is valued at Rs 500 cr, of which Mallya’s share would be worth around R160 cr
* Property has a total built-up area of 16 lakh sq ft
* Lenders seek Rs 1.7 cr of dividends that MCF paid to UBHL, Kingfisher Finvest
* UBHL and Kingfisher Finvest own 15.05% and 2.01%, respectively, of MCF