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Vijay Mallya, the embattled owner of UB Group who is fighting many a battle, is losing his grip further on his last cash-cow - United Breweries, India's largest brewer which has a market capitalisation of little over Rs 21,000 crore.
Mallya, on Wednesday disclosed that he along with his son - Sidhartha V Mallya has pledged a further close to 8% by end of last month, taking the total pledge to a total of 31.3% of the 37.5% stake he holds equally with Dutch brewer - Heineken. The pledged stake is valued at Rs 6,500 crore.
This is the latest of the problems, Mallya is having to face as he tries to fend of aggressive lenders who are trying all means to recover as much as possible of the Rs 6,200 crore outstandings from UB Group's Kingfisher Airlines and for which UB Group's various companies and Mallya himself has forked out corporate and personal guarantees respectively.
If the lenders find ways to encash Mallya's pledged holdings in United Breweries, then it would mean that he will lose control over this company as well. Early July 2013, Mallya ceded management control of UB Group's spirits flagship - United Spirits, to Diageo in a Rs 5,200 crore deal, giving Diageo an effective 25.02% stake, making the UK-based distiller the single largest shareholder in United Spirits.
Vijay Mallya has been fighting a slew of legal battles in various courts trying to stop the lenders and various other vendors in their efforts to retrieve as much as possible. The lenders consortium, led by State Bank of India, to Kingfisher Airlines have been selling various assets pledged to them over the past few months and are understood to have recovered close to Rs 1,500 crore so far.
