Team Herald
PANJIM: The Kingfisher Villa at Candolim has been sold. A group of lenders, led by the State Bank of India, sold the property to actor and businessman Sachiin Joshi for Rs 73.01 crore. This will be cause for some relief after the banks failed to auction the property on three earlier occasions as there were no bidders.
The property was picked up by Viking Media and Entertainment owned by Joshi. Joshi is the promoter behind the Planet Hollywood Beach Resort a 5-star property inspired by the Las Vegas Casino Hotel of the same name. It is the country’s first Hollywood-themed beach resort. He also holds the Playboy Restaurant franchisee in Mumbai.
A source speaking to Herald confirmed the sale and said the property would not be converted into a Playboy Club but would be used as a residence for Joshi during his regular business visits to the State. Joshi, he said, was not in the country and would not be issuing any statement.
The new owners paid an extra Rs 1 lakh to fulfill some terms and conditions. The sale of the property is part of banks’ attempts towards recovering the Rs 9000 crore loan that included interest money from Vijay Mallya who now faces extradition from the UK. The Kingfisher Villa is a prime property situated on Candolim beach and was taken over by the banks to recover the dues from Mallya who left India.
The Kingfisher Villa was sealed by Delhi-based ARCK Consultants, hired by SBI which had loaned money to Mallya’s now defunct Kingfisher Airlines. The villa was valued at Rs 90 crore after drawing up an inventory of goods and articles inside the palatial premises.
Earlier in the day, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, confirmed that the deal took place, though she refused to divulge the name of the buyer.
In the auction held in March, Kingfisher Villa was put under the hammer at a reserve price of Rs 73 crore, but the 17-lender consortium led by State Bank could find no buyers despite reducing the reserve prices by nearly 10%.
Auction for the property was conducted by SBICAP Trustee all this while on behalf of the lenders. Mallya owes over Rs 9000 crore to lenders like SBI, PNB, IDBI Bank, BoB, Allahabad Bank, Federal Bank and Axis Bank, among others. He left the country on March 3 last year for the UK and Indian authorities have been trying since then to bring him back.
Mallya had taken loans to start and run Kingfisher Airlines that has long been grounded as the carrier had gone bankrupt. Mallya had earlier in a tweet blamed faulty engines in the aircraft for the crashing of the carrier.
The embattled businessman, now living in self-imposed exile in the UK, once threw lavish parties at this sprawling beach bungalow where his celebrity friends spent ‘good times’ with him.
