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Montegrappa pen, Steinway’s speakers, Lamborghini phones... luxury auction woos India’s wealthy
Some 50 luxury brands are expected to participate in the April 1-3 auction, though only half would be selling products
Come April 1, the wealthiest of India’s social circuit will assemble for a three-day auction of luxury goods in the capital. Up for grabs are the Montegrappa Ultimate Centennial Dragon pen (valued at $1 million or over Rs 6.6 crore), Steinway’s speakers (Rs 2 crore), DJI drone fit cameras (Rs 2 crore), Rolls-Royce Ghost (base price $310,000), limited edition mobile phones from Lamborghini, hand-made John Lobb shoes and more.
Some 50 luxury brands are expected to participate in the event, though only half would be auctioning products. They will also be accepting custom orders. Participating companies include Maserati, Milagrow, BMW, Fendi, KLM, Meridian Audio, Versace and IO Walk among others. Around 5,000 HNIs across India have been invited for the event, organised by Quintessentially Lifestyle Services India and GroupM (a WPP Company) along with CII.
“We have registered over 5,000 guests, which includes high networth individuals (HNIs) across India. While the popular HNIs are obviously part of the guest list, we have identified few emerging HNIs through the wealth management branches of banks,” said Amit Datta, managing director, Quintessentially Lifestyle.
The Indian luxury market is expected to reach $14.73 billion (almost Rs 1 lakh crore) by 2015 from an estimated $8.21 billion this year, with about 30% of the customers coming from smaller cities. According to Kotak Wealth Management’s Top of the Pyramid 2015 report, the number of ultra-high networth households in India rose 17% to 1,37,100 in 2014-15, compared with 1,17,000 in the previous year. Kotak Wealth defined ultra HNIs as those households with networth of at least Rs 25 crore. Of these 137,100 households, 44% belonged to non-metro cities.
