Auction fails as no bidder turns up for Kingfisher brands in Mumbai

Auction of brands and trademarks of Kingfisher Airlines turned out to be a damp squib on Saturday as lenders failed to attract a single bidder for sale of these pledged assets at a reserve price of Rs 36670 crore in their efforts to recover unpaid loans from beleaguered Vijay MallyaKingfisher House was put under the hammer by SBI which had lent Rs 1600 crore to Kingfisher Airlines PicNimesh DaveThis is the second failed attempt by the 17bank consortium led by staterun behemoth SBI to recover some money from Mallya after an earlier auction of Kingfisher House the erstwhile headquarters of the longdefunct airline met with a similar fate with no bidder coming forwardThe items on sale during todays eauction included the the Kingfisher logo as also the oncefamous tagline Fly the Good Times The other trademarks on sale included Flying Models Funliner Fly Kingfisher and Flying Bird Device The reserve price for the trademarks was kept at Rs 36670 crore which is not even onetenth of the price at which it was pledged as a collateral for the loan Sources however said the reserve price was too high for any bidder to come inThere were no bids possibly because the reserve price was considered very high Though the reserve price was set much lower than its original valuation at the time of taking the brand as collateral people still found it to be high a banking source saidThe online auction began at 1130 am and lasted for an hour without any success It was conducted by SBICAP Trustee Company on behalf of lenders under the Sarfaesi ActThe Kingfisher brand itself was valued at over Rs 4000 crore by Grant Thornton when the airline was at its peak In its annual report for 201213 KFA said that at its peak it was the largest airline in India with a fivestar rating from Skytrax The airlines brand had been registered separately from the Kingfisher beer trademarksA senior banker said The interest for this auction could have been from existing airline operators but no one will come It is better to start a new airline company than to buy this brand and revive itIn a previous attempt at recovery of dues which have ballooned to over Rs 9000 crore after taking into account the interest component the banks had conducted an auction of Kingfisher House last month but did not find any takers at a reserve price of Rs 150 croreSources said the lenders might now try to lower the reserve price in both the cases in their future efforts to sell these pledged assets The Kingfisher House property has a builtup area of over 17000 square feet in posh Vile Parle near domestic airport in Mumbai Mallya who left India on March 2 and is currently in London has a nonbailable warrant against him in a moneylaundering investigation His passport has also been revoked Earlier this week the government said it has written to the British government seeking Mallyas deportationIn an interview to the Financial Times the liquor baron however said he is in a forced exile and has no plans at the moment to return to India where things are flying at him fast and furiousI definitely would like to return to India Right now things are flying at me fast and furious My passport has been revoked I dont know what the government is going to do next he saidMallya said he wanted a reasonable settlement with creditor banks for his defunct airline but they are not getting any money by taking his passport or arresting him