Auction of Mumbai’s Kingfisher house fails for third time

A State Bank of India-led consortium's attempt to auction the Kingfisher House in Mumbai, formerly owned by beleaguered industrialist Vijay Mallya, failed for the third time on Monday as there were no takers despite a 15 per cent cut in the reserve price.

The reserve price for the property, once the defunct Kingfisher Airline's corporate office, was Rs115 crore, which was 15 per cent lower than the failed second auction held in August, when the minimum sale price was fixed at Rs135 crore. Both previous auctions failed as bidders found the reserve price too high. 

Kingfisher Villa in north Goa will be auctioned on 22 December at a reserve price of Rs81 crore, which is 5 per cent lower than the auction price in October, when the lenders had tried to sell the sea-facing property at Rs85.29 crore.

The liquor baron left the country in March and is currently reported to be living in Britain.

Kingfisher Villa, owned by United Breweries Holdings (UBHL), was mortgaged as collateral for loans to Kingfisher Airlines.

Besides these two properties, the banks are also once again auctioning movable properties worth Rs15.72 lakh kept at Kingfisher House on 5 January. These assets include 10 cars, which will be auctioned on an individual basis.

Kingfisher Airlines is widely believed to owe around Rs9,000 crore to a consortium of 17 banks led by SBI, though Mallya himself has said he does not know how this figure has been arrived at by the media.