Mallya case: Banks to auction Kingfisher, 'Fly with Good Times' trademarks

Mumbai: After a failed attempt to sell Kingfisher House, erstwhile headquarters of Vijay Mallya’s defunct carrier, lenders will auction the trademarks of the airline, including for ‘Kingfisher’ logo and once-famous ‘Fly the Good Times’ tagline on April 30. [caption id=“attachment_694664” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] The reserve price for the trademarks, which also include Flying Models, Fly the Good Times, Funliner, Fly Kingfisher, Flying Bird device, has been kept at Rs 366 crore. The airlines had pledged the trademarks as collateral with banks at the time of taking loans from them. In its annual report for 2012-13, KFA said at its peak it was the largest airline in India, with a five-star rating from Skytrax. A valuation report from Grant Thornton put its brand value at USD 550 million on resumption of operations. The airline’s brand had been registered separately from the Kingfisher beer trademark. The online auction is being conducted by SBICAP Trustee Company, subsidiary of SBI Caps, on behalf of lenders. According to the experts, the auction is unlikely to generate any interest from bidders as the value of brand has deteriorated. “KFA brand value has deteriorated in last few years. In this case the owner has been the ambassador of the brand and the way Vijaya Mallya has been behaving, there are some negative connotations which are being associated with the brand. I don’t think the auction is going to generate too much interest,” N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA, a brand intelligence and data insights company said. “If at all, it could see some interest from players who are from other sectors and want to enter the aviation industry.” Last month, lenders made a unsuccessful attempt to auction Kingfisher House. The auction failed as none of the bidders came forward due to high reserve prices of Rs 150 crore. The property has a built-up area of over 17,000 sq ft in Vile Parle area near domestic airport here. Lenders had taken over Kingfisher House in February last year in a bid to recover part of their dues totalling over Rs 9,000 crore, which includes unpaid loans and accrued interest.