Kingfisher’s $19 million default

INDIA’s Kingfisher Airlines, which has gone for six years without a profit, has defaulted on 1 billion rupees ($19.1 million) of payments to the Airports Authority of India.

“We have already encashed 1 billion rupees worth of guarantees given by Kingfisher against its dues,” Airports Authority chairman V.P. Agrawal said. The authority has sought additional bank guarantees from Kingfisher to cover its remaining arrears of 2.17 billion rupees ($41.5 million), he said.

Kingfisher, which sells belly cargo space, has recently cut dozens of flights to reduce costs and has sought additional working capital loans of up to 8 billion rupees ($153 million) from banks to remain operational.

Kingfisher underwent a debt recast earlier this year by issuing shares to lenders. The company cut its debt by 22 per cent to 60.07 billion rupees ($1.15 billion) by converting its loans into shares that were issued to lenders and its founder companies.

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