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Edelweiss Group, through a host of group companies, has acquired a 2.57 per cent stake in United Spirits Ltd (USL) through the open market. While the 2.57 per cent stake has voting rights, Edelweiss is also sitting on shares worth 4.33 per cent stake which have been pledged with them.
On Monday, the USL stock closed at Rs 2,774.30 on the National Stock Exchange, down 0.29 per cent from previous close.
The Edelweiss group’s move comes at a time when a host of lenders to UB Group-owned Kingfisher Airlines and UB Holdings have been moving aggressively to encash the pledged assets UB Group chief Mallya had given to raise resources for Kingfisher Airlines.
After acquiring controlling stake of 25.02 per cent in USL, Diageo had increased its stake to 29 per cent, through open market purchases. Of the 9.83 per cent stake Mallya held in USL as of March-end, as much as 95 per cent has been pledged.
In late 2012, Mallya held about 35 per cent in USL, through many of his companies. UB Holdings, the principal holding company of the UB Group companies, had given lenders corporate guarantees as well as pledged shares of USL and Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers to raise Rs 7,000 crore of debt for Kingfisher Airlines. Through the past 18 months, the lenders have offloaded many of these assets; lenders are also considering labelling Mallya a wilful defaulter.
The airline has been grounded since October 2012.
Meanwhile, about two years after it acquired Kingfisher Airlines’ Rs 430-crore debt of from ICICI Bank, along with collateral shares of USL, Kolkata-based SREI Finance has raked in about Rs 600 crore by offloading all the USL shares. A debt fund managed by SREI Venture Capital has offloaded 2.2 million USL shares at Rs 2,717 a share, garnering Rs 597 crore.
