No bidders for Kingfisher brands during bank-led auction
This is the second failed attempt to recover part of the Rs 9,000 crore Vijay Mallya owes banks in India, after an earlier auction of Kingfisher House failed.
Lenders did not manage to draw a single bidder for the sale of Kingfisher Airlines brands and trademarks on Saturday. A 17-bank consortium to whom former liquor baron Vijay Mallya owes Rs 9,000 crore attempted to sell some of his assets to recover part of the money, and set the reserve price for the items at Rs 366.7 crore. This is the consortium’s second failed attempt to recover part of the money, after an earlier failed try at selling Kingfisher House in Mumbai. Sources said the banks might try to lower the reserve price in both cases to try and sell them, PTI reported.
The consortium was led by an arm of the State Bank of India, SBICAP Trustee Company. The items on sale on Saturday included Kingfisher’s logo and its tag line ‘Fly the Good Times’, among others.
Mallya left India for the United Kingdom on March 2 and has refused three summons from the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case. The government recently revoked his passport, and the embattled businessman also has two non-bailable warrants out for his arrest. In an interview to the Financial Times, he has said he will not return to India and is in “forced exile” because things are flying at him “fast and furious”. Earlier, Mallya denied being on the run from banks in India, and said he left the country because he travelled extensively for his work.