Lenders to auction Kingfisher Villa tomorrow, set reserve price at Rs 85.3 crore

Mumbai: The 17-lender consortium led by State Bank of India will auction the Kingfisher Villa, the sea-facing plush property once-owned by the beleaguered Vijay Mallya in Goa, tomorrow.

The reserve price for the property, which once was used by Mallya to host lavish parties, has been set at Rs 85.29 crore.

Lenders had taken the possession of the villa in May this year after a protracted legal battle with United Spirits over tenancy rights.

The Kingfisher villa was owned by United Breweries Holdings, one of the Mallya group companies and was mortgaged by the now-grounded Kingfisher Airlines to the consortium of banks to obtain loans in 2010.

Lenders had opened the villa for inspection to interested bidders in two slots--September 26-27 and October 5-6. In the four days during which the property was thrown open, around half-a-dozen entities had visited the palatial villa.

"The response was good. Nearly six to seven parties from the hospitality industry and a media organisation have visited the villa," a source had earlier told PTI.

SBICap Trustees, which is auctioning the property on behalf of the lenders, said the e-auction will include only the immovable part of the villa and not its movable assets.

Vijay Mallya owes over Rs 9,000 crore to lenders like SBI, PNB, IDBI Bank, BoB, Allahabad Bank, Federal Bank and Axis Bank, among others.

He had left the country in March and is currently said to be in Britain, having defied several court orders to return to India.

The lenders efforts at selling other KFA properties including a luxe private jet and brand kingfisher as well the Kingfisher House in Mumbai all met with repeated failure.