MUMBAI: Vijay Mallya's famous Kingfisher Villa has finally been sold. After failing to find any bidders at multiple auctions, lenders have agreed to dispose the property through a negotiated sale to actor-businessman Sachiin Joshi.
Joshi is understood to have paid marginally higher than the last reserve price of Rs 73 crore. As per practice, banks are allowed to search for buyers if they do not get any response after failing to auction a property.
When contacted SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya confirmed that there was a sale but did not divulge the name of the buyer.
The 32-year old actor's website describes him as the vice chairman of JMJ group of companies which is the holding company for all his diverse business interests.
The website describes his business interest as ranging from Fitness Centres to Health space. Joshi, who owns Viking Media and Entertainment, has starred in Hindi movies including Aazaan, Mumbai Mirror and Jackpot.
The sea-facing palatial villa, situated in Candolim, Goa, had earlier attracted interest from at least half a dozen players in the hospitality industry and a media group, when it was opened for inspection to interested bidders.
However the reserve price of Rs 85 crore did not result in any buyers. Subsequently, lenders made another attempt to sell the Villa in December when they brought down the price to Rs 81 crore, again without success. The last auction took place in March 2017 when with a lower reserve price of Rs 73 crore.
The 17-lender consortium led by State Bank of India took physical possession of the property in May 2016.
