Kingfisher House auction: Lenders begin revaluation in a bid to sell it

Zee Media Bureau

Mumbai: Almost two months after it proved to be a flop show, lenders have begun a fresh valuation process of auctioning Kingfisher House, the headquarter of Vijay Mallya's now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

During the auction on March 17, lenders failed to get any bidders for the house presumably due to litigation fears and a high reserve price of Rs 150 crore.

The failure came as a big blow to lenders' efforts to recover their loans.

However, as per reports, banks have begun a fresh valuation process for auctioning the Kingfisher House in a afford to regain their loans.

"A revaluation process has begun and will be over by the next week. The property will put on the block again at the earliest," a source said.

The Kingfisher House has a built-up area of over 17,000 sq ft and is located in plush Vile Parle area near domestic airport here.

The lenders had taken over the Kingfisher House in February, 2015 after a long court battle under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act.

Last week, the lenders had tried to auction the airline's brands and trademarks but it also turned out to be a damp squib as bidders, in this case too, found the reserve price of Rs 366.70 crore very high.

The lenders had put on sale the brand Kingfisher, including the trademarks such as famed tagline Fly the Good Times, the Kingfisher logo, Flying Models, Funliner, Fly Kingfisher and Flying Bird Device.

The brand Kingfisher was valued at over Rs 4,000 crore by Grant Thornton when the carrier was at its peak being the biggest and the toniest, and was pledged with the lenders in 2011, as collateral for additional loans.

The lenders may also review the reserve price of the brand Kingfisher.

Referring to his earlier offer to pay around Rs 4,000 crore to settle dues that which was rejected, Mallya earlier this week tweeted: "Agree Kingfisher Air owes money to Banks. I am neither a borrower or a judgement debtor. Why am I a defaulter inspite of a settlement offer?"

He also said: "In all humility and not in defiance as they report, I would like Indian media to check and verify facts before calling me a defaulter."

With PTI Inputs