Auction ends; lenders fail to attract any bid for Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher House and other assets

Mumbai: With an aim to start the recovery process of the loans worth over Rs 9,000 crore being defaulted by the in-famous billionaire Vijay Mallya’s now grounded Kingfisher Airlines, the lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) today started the auction process of the liquor baron’s Kingfisher House. However, the lenders failed to attract any bids for the assets being put on the block, indicating caution among the bidders who seem to be exercising a wait-and-watch policy before showing any interest in the property. According to IANS report, bids can be submitted till April 4 while the actual auction will take place on April 6. Earlier today, lenders to the now grounded Kingfisher Airlines, owned by beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, began the auction of the KFA headquarters - Kingfisher House - situated near the domestic airport here. [caption id=“attachment_2665328” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Vijay Mallya. PTI[/caption] The property, with a built-up area of over 17,000 sq ft in Vile Parle area, is being auctioned by SBICAPS Trustee, a subsidiary of SBI Caps through an e-auction. The auction was being conducted on e-auction property platform, AuctionTiger. The base price for the property has been set at Rs 150 crore. The auction was being conducted under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act (Sarfaesi), 2002. Besides, e-auction has been initiated for selling nine high-end cars like two Honda City EXi, a Honda Civic, two Toyota Camry, a Toyota Innova, a Toyota Corolla, a Hyundai Elantra and a Hyundai Santro Zip. Other movable assets up for grabs include office furniture and fittings, air-conditioners and other items in the Kingfisher House. The property was taken over in February 2015 by a consortium of 17 banks lead by State Bank of India in a bid to recover Rs 9,000 crore loan given to the airlines. Burdened under huge losses and liabilities, including to the lenders, the airline was grounded in late 2012. While lenders have stepped up their efforts to recover dues totalling over Rs 9,000 crore, the founder and main promoter Mallya left the country earlier this month. Recently, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a CBI FIR registered last year. The agency is also investigating the overall financial structure of Kingfisher Airlines and will look into any payment of kickbacks. Kingfisher Airlines faces a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into its allegedly ‘inflated’ brand valuation of over Rs 4,000 crore. The government’s white-collar fraud detection agency is probing whether such a high valuation was arrived at fraudulently to get more funds from banks and siphon off the additional money for purposes other than proposed investment in the airline. With inputs from PTI