Actor-businessman Sachiin Joshi acquires Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Villa

Finally, deal seems to be have been struck for Vijay Mallya's sea-facing property in Candolim, Goa.

According to a Gujarati website, Mallya's party pad Kingfisher Villa has been sold to Viking Media and Entertainment for a little over Rs 73 crores, which is owned by actor-businessman Sachiin Joshi.

Though, State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya confirmed that the deal took place, she didn't 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%. Earlier, Kingfisher Villa could not get any bid inspite of being auctioned three times.

The SBI-led consortium had reduced the reserve price of Kingfisher Villa from Rs 81 crore quoted in the second attempt at auction of this property in December. Kingfisher Villa was put under the hammer for the first time last October with a reserve price of Rs 85.29 crore.

Auction for property was conducted by SBICAP Trustee all this while on behalf of the lenders.

Mallya owes over Rs 9,000 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.

(With agency inputs)