Govt says no to Mallya's reappointment as Kingfisher CMD

In a fresh blow to UB Group chief Vijay Mallya, the government has rejected an application by Kingfisher Airlines to re-appoint him as Managing Director.

Kingfisher, which had to be grounded in October 2012 due to severe financial crunch, had sought the Corporate Affairs Ministry's approval for Mallya's re-appointment for a period of fiver-year beginning October 16, 2013 "without remuneration".

The company has already faced actions by stock exchanges for non-compliance to listing agreement as it has failed to submit financial results for the past few quarters and to make other mandatory disclosures.

The airline said in a regulatory filing that its application has been rejected for re-appointing Mallya as MD.

No specific reason could be immediately ascertained for the rejection.

The disclosure comes on a day, when another UB Group firm Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers announced Mallya's resignation as a director without giving any reason.

Besides, minority shareholders of United Spirits had last week rejected several proposals including those about dealings of the company with Mallya, whose group has sold controlling stake to British liquor giant Diageo.

Mallya is already engaged in legal tussle with several lenders who are trying to recover their loans amounting to thousands of crores of rupees from Kingfisher and some of them have also declared the UB Group chairman as a wilful defaulter.

The Group has sold stakes in some other ventures as well including brewery business and a sports venture.

Kingfisher shares incidentally today rose by about five per cent to Rs 1.34. The company currently commands a market value of about Rs 100 crore, as against a high of over Rs 10,000 crore before troubles began at the airline in late 2012.

Mallya is Chairman and Managing Director of the airline, while it has been without a CEO ever since Sanjay Agarwal left the company early this year.

The airlines is already under regulatory scanner for alleged accounting lapses.