Kingfisher airlines prime assets to be auctioned again

Mumbai: Kingfisher Airlines' two prime assets, Kingfisher House in the city and Kingfisher Villa in Goa, will be auctioned tomorrow by banks to recover their loans to the long-defunct airline started by defaulter businessman Vijay Mallya.

While Kingfisher House will be put under the hammer for the fourth time after three failed attempts, Kingfisher Villa is being put on sale for the third time. The reserve prices for both the properties owned by Mallya have been lowered after the earlier attempts of the 17-lender consortium failed to attract bidders.

The SBI-led consortium has reduced the reserve price of the erstwhile headquarters of the grounded airline, Kingfisher House, by 10 per cent to Rs 103.50 crore as compared to that of Rs 115 crore for the previous auction held last December.

In the first auction of Kingfisher House last March, the reserve price was set at Rs 150 crore but was lowered to Rs 135 crore in the second auction held in August as none of the bidders came forward to buy the property.

The prime property has a built-up area of over 17,000 sq ft and is located in the plush Vile Parle area near the domestic terminal. Similarly, the reserve price of Kingfisher Villa, the plush property situated at Condolim in north Goa is set at Rs 73 crore, which is around 10 per cent down than the second auction held last December.

In the December auction, the price of the sea-facing property was set at Rs 81 crore. It was put under the hammer for the first time last October with a reserve price of Rs 85.29 crore.

The Villa was once used by Mallya to host lavish parties. SBICAPS Trustee is auctioning the properties on behalf of the lenders. Mallya has been declared a wilful defaulter and is wanted by Indian authorities for default in payment of loans related to Kingfisher Airlines that was grounded in 2012.

He owes over Rs 9,000 crore to lenders like SBI, PNB, IDBI Bank, BoB, Allahabad Bank, Federal Bank and Axis Bank, among others. He left the country on March 3 last year and is currently said to be in the UK.

On Friday, Mallya, in a series of tweets, blamed faulty engines as one of the reasons for the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines. He said IAE, a group firm of Pratt & Whitney, against which aviation regulator DGCA has ordered a detailed inspection, has been sued for supplying defective engines to his erstwhile airlines.

Aviation regulator DGCA recently ordered a detailed inspection of 21 Airbus 320neo planes of IndiGo and GoAir that are equipped with P&W engines, which are facing frequent glitches.