Banks to auction Kingfisher Airlines brands again tomorrow at lower price

Mumbai: In their second attempt at recovering a part of the dues of over Rs 9,000 crore from now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, lenders will re-auction the airlines' trademarks, including Kingfisher logo and the once-famous tag-line 'Fly the Good Times' tomorrow, but at a lower reserve price of Rs 330.03 crore.

The 17-lender consortium led by State Bank of India has also put the Flying Models, Funliner, Fly Kingfisher and Flying Bird Device on the block. The one-hour e-auction of various trademarks of the airlines will begin at 1130 hrs.

Bankers in April had made a failed attempt to sell brands and trademarks of the long grounded airlines, owned by the beleaguered airline promoter Vijay Mallya.

The auction turned out to be a damp squib as none of the bidders came forward due to higher reserve price of Rs 366.70 crore. This time banks have lowered the reserve price by 10 per cent to Rs 330.03 crore. The Kingfisher brand itself was valued at over Rs 4,000 crore by consultancy Grant Thornton when the airline was at its peak.

In its annual report for 2012-13, KFA said, at its peak, it was the largest airline in the country with a five-star rating from Skytrax.

The airline's brand had been registered separately from the Kingfisher beer trademarks. Lenders will also auction some movable assets worth Rs 13.70 lakh lying at Kingfisher House tomorrow.

The items on sale would include eight cars - Toyota Innova, Honda City, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, among others. The reserve price of each car has been set differently in the range of Rs 90,000-2.50 lakh.

Earlier this month, the auction of Kingfisher House proved a damp squib again as no bidder turned up for the erstwhile headquarters of Vijay Mallya-led airline at a reduced reserve price of Rs 135 crore.

The Kingfisher House, has a built-up area of over 17,000 sqft and is located in the plush Vile Parle area near the domestic airport in the megapolis.