SBICap Trustee Company has put the Kingfisher Airlines brand up for sale to recover dues from the airline.
The firm, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets, has invited expression of interest from those keen to acquire the Kingfisher Airlines trademark, marking the beginning of the sale of assets of the Vijay Mallya-owned UB Group.
The company has released an advertisement in newspapers calling for expression of interest so that the market value of the brand can be ascertained. Audit firm Grant Thornton had valued the airline brand at about ₹3,000 crore five years ago.
The airline owes the State Bank of India-led consortium of banks over ₹7,500 crore.
The trademarks up for sale are ‘Fly Kingfisher’, ‘Fly the Good Times,’ ‘Funliner’ and ‘Kingfisher’, all owned by Kingfisher Airlines, and ‘Flying Models’, registered in the name of UB Holdings. The last date for filing the expression of interest is April 21.
The airline stopped operations in October 2012 and owes several crores to airline-leasing companies, oil companies and airports.