Third attempt to sell Kingfisher House fails

The 17-lender consortium, led by State Bank of India had put on auction the property with a reserve price of Rs 115 crore, which was 15% less than the second auction of the property held in August

Lenders attempt to sell the erstwhile headquarters of defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Kingfisher House, in the city failed for the third time, on Monday, as none of buyers showed interest despite a 15 per cent cut in reserve price.

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.

"None of the bidders came and the auction of Kingfisher House failed this time also," a source said.

The 17-lender consortium, led by State Bank of India had put on auction the property, on Monday, with a reserve price of Rs 115 crore (Rs 1.15 billion), which was 15 per cent less than the second auction of the property held in August and 23 per cent lower than the first auction in March this year.

In the second auction in August, the reserve price for Kingfisher House was kept at Rs 135 crore (Rs 1.35 billion), 10 per cent lower than the first auction of the asset in March when the reserve price was fixed at Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion). Both the auctions failed as bidders found the reserve price too high.

The lenders are also re-auctioning beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya's another plush property - Kingfisher Villa – at Condolim in North Goa on December 22.

The villa will be put under the hammer at a reserve price of Rs 81 crore (Rs 810 million), which is 5 per cent lower than the auction held in October, when the lenders had tried to sell the sea facing property at Rs 85.29 crore.

The villa was once used by Mallya to host lavish parties.

All the properties are being auctioned by SBICap Trustee on behalf of the lenders.

Last month, the Service Tax Department too failed twice to get any bidders for the luxury jet, owned by Mallya, in its possession.

While Mallya owes over Rs 850 crore (Rs 8.5 billion) to the department, the luxury jet was originally valued at over Rs 150 crore.

Mallya owes over Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) to lenders like SBI, PNB, IDBI Bank, BoB, Allahabad Bank, Federal Bank and Axis Bank, among others.

He had left the country on March 3 this year and is currently said to be in Britain.

Photograph: Hoch Zwei/Reuters