Kingfisher Airlines Brands Up for Sale as Creditors Claw Back $1.3bn Loans

Creditors have put up for sale the brands owned by Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines, as they seek to recover billions of rupees from the troubled firm.

The brands up for sale include "Kingfisher", "Fly the Good Times", "Flying Models", "Funliner" and "Flying Bird Device". Their sale was initiated by a wholly owned subsidiary of State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, which led the consortium that provided loans to the airline.

The airline, which owes 80bn rupees ($1.3bn, £800m, €968m) to banks, has not flown since October 2012 and its licence has been suspended.

The banks led by SBI subsidiary, SBICAP Trustee Co., started the process of selling pledged properties, as the airline showed no signs of repaying the huge amount. Creditors are looking for a so-called expression of interest (EoI) from parties interested in acquiring the trademarks pertaining to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines.

In addition, they expect to recover about 10bn rupees from pledged properties including helicopters and other assets.

The Kingfisher brand, which was valued at 30bn rupees by audit firm Grant Thornton India some years ago, was given to creditors as collateral.

The airline was started by Indian liquor business tycoon Vijay Mallya in 2005, naming it after his flagship beer brand.

The sale is not expected to impact the name of the beer brand, as the airline and beer brand are registered under different categories. However, Dutch brewer Heineken that is the largest shareholder United Breweries, which makes the Kingfisher beer, has reportedly expressed its concerns over the sale of the airline brand.

Since its failure, Kingfisher has been facing a number of winding up petitions, including the one from a consortium of banks which provided the huge loan to the airline, despite its ill health.

As of 31 March 2013, the airline had losses of 16bn rupees, and its net worth was negative 12bn rupees.

The loan recovery efforts from the banks come after the Reserve Bank of India wanted them to improve their books by cutting non-performing assets (NPAs). Total NPAs at 40 listed banks in the country increased more than 35% to 2.43tn rupees at the quarter ended in December from 1.79tn rupees a year ago.