Mallya Sr abroad, son hunting for calendar girls Left India 20 Days Ago In Pvt Plane

New Delhi: When the bad times came upon Kingfisher, its founder — the king of good times Vijay Mallya — was nowhere to be seen or heard. All his personal staff was willing to say was that "VJM (his nickname) is abroad" while employees were speculating he was in London. 

    While the aviation ministry made it clear in past few days that it will get the DGCA to suspended Kingfisher's licence, Mallya did not come calling on either aviation minister Ajit Singh or his trusted and powerful aide Prabhat Kumar to avert this fate. 
    "VJM left India about 20 days back on his personal plane. He travels on his personal jet, VT-VJM, and as of now there is no news of his coming back to the country," said sources. Employees keeping track of VJM say he was last 'spotted' at South Korea's Yeongam, where was attending the Korean Grand Prix. The F1 team co-owned by him and Sahara India was participating there. 
    Son Sidhartha Mallya — for whom Kingfisher was his 18th birthday gift from a doting dad — was oblivious of the troubles in the airline and of the agony of his unpaid employees. On Friday, when the die of Kingfisher licence getting suspended was cast, he tweeted: "Guys check out the 1st promo for The Hunt For The Kingfisher Calendar Girl 2013 featuring your truly." And a day earlier, he tweeted his position: "Nothing beats the post 5oclock pub rush in London....best atmosphere ever!! Love being bk here....sometimes wonder why i ever left...." 
    While the airline has been facing major trouble since September-end and is grounded from October 1, some of his sample tweets are: "Just spent the morning playing volleyball with 12 bikini clad models on the beach-...now I understand why people hate me. HA!" Or this: "Have been fortunate enoughto attend GP races all over the globe....Korea is by far the worse. Feeling for everyone who's there...." 
    Employees are speculating that Mallya senior may be in Delhi next weekend for the Greater Noida Grand Prix. Lenders hoping for Mallya-Diageo deal 
    Mayur Shetty TNN 
Mumbai: Lenders to Kingfisher Airlines are on a wing and a prayer as they fervently hope that Vijay Mallya would strike a deal with British liquor giant Diageo for his flagship company United Spirits. 
    This is their only hope of recovery of some of the Rs 8,000 crore due from Kingfisher after the airline's licence was suspended on Saturday, reducing chances of getting a strategic investor. 
    Suspension of the licence has increased the risk of the airline losing its parking slots and its landing rights, which are seen as the only intangible assets with value. Although the brand is pledged to lenders, there is little scope of recovering funds through its sale. 
    "One source of comfort is that we have a personal guarantee of Vijay Mallya and if he is able to unlock value from other holdings, there is scope to recover funds," said a banker. A senior SBI official told newspersons that the company was scheduled to come up with a revival plan by the month-end and the bank would wait a few days for the plan. A large chunk of United Spirits equity is pledged with lenders including a 4% pledge, which ICICI Bank sold along with a loan to SREI. 
    Despite the latest setback, lenders may not put securities offered as collateral on the block immediately as they would rather wait for the month-end meeting. Securities include, Kingfisher's office premises in Mumbai and Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Villa in Goa. "More than enough default events have occurred that would have been triggered recovery proceedings. The suspension of licence is an incremental event and not wholly unexpected because services had been whittled down to five aircraft" said a banker who is part of consortium. 
Mallya's private plane will still fly on second licence 
New Delhi: The airline's licence may have been suspended, but Kingfisher promoter Vijay Mallya will still continue to globetrot in his personal Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ). The plane is registered after his name as VT-VJM. He had two flying licences — a schedule operator permit for Kingfisher, which is now suspended and a nonschedule operator permit under which his super luxury Airbus A-319 ACJ flies. Since the latter is still valid, Mallya is unlikely to be seen in flights of rival airlines. An airline commander said a set of six pilots and about four airhostesses is maintained for the ACJ. The personnel for Mallya's personal plane are learnt to have been paid regularly or at least the $-250 daily allowance they get when abroad with the chairman. 
    "Some other pilots of the airline had a fight with the exclusive group, which flies VT-VJM over why they were flying when their colleagues aren't? The latter replied that even if the airline is shut down, they will have their job as the personal aircraft would still be needed for UB Group top brass and the chairman," said a pilot. TNN

THE KING IN BAD TIMES: Employees say Vijay Mallya was lasst seen attending the Korean Grand Prix.