After much delay, lenders have sold Kingfisher House, the headquarters of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. The property earlier valued at Rs 150 crore was sold to Hyderabad-based Saturn Realtors for Rs 52.25 crore, reported Economic Times. The property near the Mumbai airport was finally sold after eight previous auction attempts.
The property owned by Vijay Mallya, who is wanted in India on fraud and money laundering charges and has been termed a willful defaulter, was sold by the Debt Recovery Tribunal, Bengaluru, which is representing the lending banks. The property originally valued at Rs 150 was set at a price of Rs 135 crore at the time of the first auction in 2016.
The property price was brought down to Rs 54 crore on November 27, 2019, after being unable to find a buyer in the eighth round of online auctions.
The office property sits on 0.6 acres of land, beside the Western Express Highway, outside the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). ET reported that the property transaction was executed on July 29 and has been registered by the buyer who paid a stamp duty worth Rs 2.61 crore.
Kingfisher ceased operations in October 2012 due to losses. Vijay Mallya had taken loans from a consortium of 17 lenders to operate the airline. The State Bank of India had lent as much as Rs 9,900 crore to the now-defunct airline.
These loans were taken against Mallya's personal guarantees to operate the airline but it went into debt. The CBI and Enforcement Directorate began an investigation into the loans given by the banks and attached properties owned by Mallya. Investigators alleged financial irregularities and diversion of funds by the liquor baron.
Lenders have already recovered Rs 7,250 crore from Mallya and another Rs 5,800 crore was recovered after selling shares held by Mallya in United Breweries Ltd. to Heineken NV. He was declared bankrupt by the London High Court on July 26 and is now out on bail in the UK. Talks about the extradition of Mallya from the UK to India are ongoing.