German bank to send team to India to get aircraft leased to Kingfisher deregistered
Germany’s DVB Bank, the world’s largest aviation financing bank, is sending a team to India next week to get two of its planes leased to grounded Kingfisher Airlines deregistered so that it can reclaim its property. This will be its second attempt to resolve the issue. If the team fails, the German bank will seek legal recourse. It has already filed a suit against the Indian regulator and Kingfisher in December, as the authorities were not willing to deregister the aircraft then. DVB has already announced it is halting all financing to Indian airline companies based on this experience.
The team will be meeting all stakeholders in New Delhi and put up its case for ending the Kingfisher lease and get the aircraft de-registered from India so that this wasted asset can be leased to other carriers or for any other usage it has in mind.
The two planes were sent to Turkey for repair and maintenance where DVB seized these. However, unless the planes are de-registered in the lessor country, the German bank can’t lease them to other carriers or sell them. The regulator’s stand so far has been that apart from DVB, there are other creditors, so it has to take the consent of these before de-registering the planes.
Recently, the civil aviation ministry decided that all 15 of the deregistered aircraft that are no longer held under a Kingfisher lease would be released to the respective leasing firms and a note to that affect would be circulated soon. Earlier, the authorities including the Airports Authority of India had decided that till such time the bankrupt airline does not clear dues, they would not release the aircraft. Reacting to the development, the German bank said this move of the government does not impact it directly but is positive and it hopes that there would be some solution found in the meeting on March 25 when they meet all the parties concerned.
“Although this is not directly applicable to DVB’s situation, where DGCA so far has not deregistered our two aircraft which already are outside India, it increases our hope that in our next meeting with the DGCA on March 25, 2013, to which all relevant parties in our case have been invited by the DGCA, we can convince the authority that there is no reason not to deregister our aircraft, and thereby avoid the need to obtain a decision from the New Delhi HC on April 8, 2013,” said Carsten Gerlach, senior vicepresident, aviation finance, DVB Bank, in a mailed response to ET’s query.
Other leasing firms will benefit from the government decision, he said. “DVB views the announcement of the release of ex-Kingfisher aircraft from their current grounding at Indian airports a further encouraging sign of the willingness of the Indian government and administration to finally help the international aircraft leasing and finance community to recover their assets originally on lease to Kingfisher Airlines and move on,” Gerlach said.
Attempts to reach the director general of civil aviation Arun Mishra for a comment failed as he is currently out of India. He did not respond to a message sent to him on the same issue either.
Striking a pessimistic note, sources within Kingfisher said that it might not be easy for the German firm to conclude the issue within a single meeting.
Curtosy:
MANISHA SINGHAL MUMBAI
manisha.singhal@timesgroup.com
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETM/2013/03/21&PageLabel=7&EntityId=Ar00700&ViewMode=HTML
Germany’s DVB Bank, the world’s largest aviation financing bank, is sending a team to India next week to get two of its planes leased to grounded Kingfisher Airlines deregistered so that it can reclaim its property. This will be its second attempt to resolve the issue. If the team fails, the German bank will seek legal recourse. It has already filed a suit against the Indian regulator and Kingfisher in December, as the authorities were not willing to deregister the aircraft then. DVB has already announced it is halting all financing to Indian airline companies based on this experience.
The team will be meeting all stakeholders in New Delhi and put up its case for ending the Kingfisher lease and get the aircraft de-registered from India so that this wasted asset can be leased to other carriers or for any other usage it has in mind.
The two planes were sent to Turkey for repair and maintenance where DVB seized these. However, unless the planes are de-registered in the lessor country, the German bank can’t lease them to other carriers or sell them. The regulator’s stand so far has been that apart from DVB, there are other creditors, so it has to take the consent of these before de-registering the planes.
Recently, the civil aviation ministry decided that all 15 of the deregistered aircraft that are no longer held under a Kingfisher lease would be released to the respective leasing firms and a note to that affect would be circulated soon. Earlier, the authorities including the Airports Authority of India had decided that till such time the bankrupt airline does not clear dues, they would not release the aircraft. Reacting to the development, the German bank said this move of the government does not impact it directly but is positive and it hopes that there would be some solution found in the meeting on March 25 when they meet all the parties concerned.
“Although this is not directly applicable to DVB’s situation, where DGCA so far has not deregistered our two aircraft which already are outside India, it increases our hope that in our next meeting with the DGCA on March 25, 2013, to which all relevant parties in our case have been invited by the DGCA, we can convince the authority that there is no reason not to deregister our aircraft, and thereby avoid the need to obtain a decision from the New Delhi HC on April 8, 2013,” said Carsten Gerlach, senior vicepresident, aviation finance, DVB Bank, in a mailed response to ET’s query.
Other leasing firms will benefit from the government decision, he said. “DVB views the announcement of the release of ex-Kingfisher aircraft from their current grounding at Indian airports a further encouraging sign of the willingness of the Indian government and administration to finally help the international aircraft leasing and finance community to recover their assets originally on lease to Kingfisher Airlines and move on,” Gerlach said.
Attempts to reach the director general of civil aviation Arun Mishra for a comment failed as he is currently out of India. He did not respond to a message sent to him on the same issue either.
Striking a pessimistic note, sources within Kingfisher said that it might not be easy for the German firm to conclude the issue within a single meeting.
Curtosy:
MANISHA SINGHAL MUMBAI
manisha.singhal@timesgroup.com
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETM/2013/03/21&PageLabel=7&EntityId=Ar00700&ViewMode=HTML
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