Leila Lands, a Mauritius-based business of the Wadia Group, received $300 million in loans from Deutsche Bank in the fiscal years 2021 and 2022. The company generated $190 million worth of fixed deposits during the same time frame, which were utilised to get financing for Go First from Deutsche Bank.
According to documents made by Leila Lands and Associated Biscuits International Ltd., which holds a 44.76 percent share in Britannia Industries and is the parent company of the company, Leila Lands took the loan by putting a charge on the account of the London-based parent of Britannia Industries.
Leila Lands said that although money had been raised from Deutsche Bank, it was unrelated to the group’s ownership of Britannia Industries.
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Leila Lands has made sizeable equity investments in Go First over time as promoters, a representative for the company told the daily.
According to the spokesman, the company used its own accrued retained cash earnings to fund a $191 million fixed deposit as security for Deutsche Bank. The spokeswoman added that ABIL provided a lien on its inflows but it has no connection to the Britannia stake and that Deutsche Bank had given Leila Lands a loan of $300 million for corporate uses and investments.
Go First admitted the loan to the daily at the same time, but claimed to be unaware of the fixed deposits. Go First claimed to be unrelated to Britannia Industries. In its petition to the National NCLT, the troubled airline claimed that it had fallen behind on payments totaling Rs 2,600 crore to aircraft lessors and Rs 1,200 crore to vendors.
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