India tycoon offers to repay 40b rupees of defunct airline loans

New Delhi

EMBATTLED Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya has proposed to repay 40 billion rupees (S$815 million), less than half of what his defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes to creditor banks who have approached the nation's highest court to recover their dues.

Mr Mallya, who left India on March 2 and whose exact whereabouts since then are not known, made the offer on Wednesday to the group of lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) to pay the sum by end-September.

A lawyer for Mr Mallya also told India's Supreme Court that Kingfisher could pay another 20 billion rupees to banks if it wins a lawsuit seeking damages from a plane engine maker. The lawyer did not give a time frame for that payment, while a spokesman for Mr Mallya's UB Group did not reply to a r…