SBI starts auction of Kingfisher House

The SBI-led bank consortium starts auctioning the Kingfisher House at Jogeshwari in Mumbai, in a bid to recover a part of Rs 6,963 crore debt due from the now grounded Kingfisher Airlines.

The house, which served as Kingfisher headquarters is situated near the domestic airport. It would be sold through e-auction. The e-auction will be done under Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002.

The property, with a built-up area of over 17,000 sq ft in Vile Parle area, is being auctioned by SBICAPS Trustee, a subsidiary of SBI Caps through an e-auction.

The auction is being conducted on e-auction property platform, AuctionTiger. The base price for the property has been set at Rs 150 crore.

The property was taken over in February 2015 by a consortium of 17 banks lead by State Bank of India in a bid to recover Rs 9,000 crore loan given to the airlines.

Vijay Mallya is on the run at the moment.

Recently, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against Mallya and others based on a CBI FIR registered last year.

The agency is also investigating the overall financial structure of Kingfisher Airlines and will look into any payment of kickbacks.

Kingfisher Airlines faces a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) into its allegedly ‘inflated’ brand valuation of over Rs 4,000 crore.

The government’s white-collar fraud detection agency is probing whether such a high valuation was arrived at fraudulently to get more funds from banks and siphon off the additional money for purposes other than proposed investment in the airline.