JOIN US In a bid to cut down its debt pile, Diageo, the owner of United Spirits (USL), is likely to auction some of the prime properties owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
According to reports, some of the properties that could go under the hammer include Mallya's residence at Napean Sea Road in Mumbai, and properties across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Scotland, and Hong Kong, and is likely to fetch USL around Rs 680 crore. USL is currently having debt of around Rs 4,000 crore on its books, and is looking at all options in order to bring it down.
According to the report, Mallya, who is currently residing outside the country, had the option of buying these properties at a 10% discount to the market price. However, since the deadline for buying these properties ended on February 21, USL has decided to auction these properties in order to raise some funds to pay off a part of the debt.
This is the latest of setbacks for Mallya. Earlier, during this month, the government had put in a formal request to see extradition of Mallya from the UK. The ED had also attached some of Mallya’s assets worth over Rs 6,500 crore in September, last year, including Mandwa Farm House in Alibag, flats in Kingfisher Tower, Bengaluru, his fixed deposits with HDFC, shares of USL, UBL and Mcdowell Holding held by him/United Breweries Holding (UBHL) and his controlled entities.
Mallya, who had been banned by markets regulator Sebi from accessing the capital markets recently, has been staying out of India, and owes over Rs 9,000 crore to banks as part of loans taken to run Kingfisher Airlines. Efforts of banks to auction some of Kingfisher’s assets to recover loans given to Mallya have failed.
A consortium of banks led by State Bank of India had tried to auction the Kingfisher Villa in Goa, Kingfisher’s corporate office in Mumbai, some cars owned by Mallya, brand Kingfisher and other trademarks including Flying Models, Funliner, Fly Kingfisher and Flying Bird Device, but had found no takers. SBI Caps was conducting the sale process on behalf of the banks.