Banks looking at bilateral pact to make Kingfisher House sale

Mumbai: In order to make sale of Kingfisher House, banks are considering adopting a model followed in recent sale of the defaulter businessman Vijay Mallya posh Goa villa to recover their dues.

Repeated attempts to auction the Mumbai property have failed to find a buyer, which was the case for sea-facing Goa villa as well until the banks entered into direct negotiations to clinch a bilateral pact with the buyer.

Banks have the option to sell the properties under their possession through a private agreement with a buyer, if at least two auctions of such properties failed.

"With the sale of the villa, at least a process has been initiated. We may explore the option of selling Kingfisher House through a bilateral agreement," a banking source said.

Earlier this month, the 17-lender consortium led by State Bank of India sold the Kingfisher Villa for Rs 73.01 crore to Sachiin Joshi of Viiking Media & Entertainment, after failing to sell it through auction thrice since last year.

The plush property situated at Condolim in north Goa was sold through a private deal between lenders and Joshi. It was sold at just Rs 1 lakh above the last fixed reserve price of Rs 73 crore.

Mallya owes over Rs 9,000 crore to bankers, taken for his defunct Kingfisher Airlines but alleged to have syphoned off a good portion to his shell companies in overseas tax havens.

Mallya has been declared a wilful defaulter and is wanted by authorities for default in payment of loans.

With PTI Inputs