Banks, owed around Rs.7,000 crore by Kingfisher Airlines, have begun the process of selling off the Kingfisher brand after the airline gave the “Kingfisher” brand as collateral to creditors. This is of course a ploy by the banks to force the hand of Mallya-controlled United Breweries and their shareholders including Diageo into parting with some significant amounts of cash, which to date has not been the case as creditors have seen United Breweries distance itself from the Kingfisher Airline saga at every turn. It is thought that the Kingfisher beer brand and the airline brand must remain in the same hands.
SBI Capital Markets, has floated an expression of interest from parties who wish to acquire the trademarks for Kingfisher Airlines which includes; “fly kingfisher” “flying models”, “fly the good times”, “funliner”, “kingfisher” and “flying bird device”.