Lenders find no takers for Kingfisher brand, trademarks

MUMBAI: There were no takers for the brands and trademarks of Kingfisher Airlines - not even for its once-famous tagline 'Fly The Goodtimes' - in an auction held by banks on Saturday

A 17-bank consortium was seeking to recover money owed them from liquor baron Vijay Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Last month, the consortium of banks had failed in its attempt to sell the airline's erstwhile headquarter Kingfisher House here.

The reserve price for the trademark was set at Rs 366.70 crore, which was not even one-tenth of the price at which it was pledged with as a collateral for the loan.

Also read: Vijay Mallya, 'King Of Good Times,' dethroned by debt

Besides the logo, the 17 lenders led by SBI put on sale other trademarks of the airline like Flying Models, Funliner, Fly Kingfisher and Flying Bird Device.

The brand Kingfisher was collateralised to banks for a whopping Rs 4,000 crore (by Grant Thornton) in 2010.

The online auction of brand Kingfisher was conducted by SBI Cap Trustee Company on behalf of lenders under the SARFAESI Act.

Mallya had pledged the trademarks as collateral with banks at the time of taking loans from them.

At its peak, the Kingfisher Airlines was the largest airline in the country, with a five-star rating from Skytrax, according to the airline's annual report for 2012-13.

Mallya left the country on March 2 for London. Earlier this week, the government had asked Britain to deport Mallya, citing the revocation of his passport and a non-bailable warrant against him.