Vijay Mally

Businessman and Politician

The Estimated Net Worth of Vijay Mallya is $180 Million. The Net Worth of Vijay Mallya has seen a hike of 22% over the past few years.

Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman and politician who is the subject of an extradition effort to try to force his return from the U.K. to India to face charges of financial crimes. The son of businessman Vittal Mallya, he is the ex-chairman of United Spirits Ltd, the largest spirits company in India and continues to serve as Chairman of UB Group, an Indian conglomerate with interests in beverage alcohol, aviation infrastructure, real estate and fertiliser among others. He has been the Chairman of Sanofi India (previously known as Hoechst AG and Aventis) as well as the Chairman of Bayer CropScience in India for over 20 years, in addition to being the Chairman of several other companies.

Mallya became the Chairman of United Breweries Group in 1983 at the age of 28, following his father's death. Since then, the group has grown into a multi-national conglomerate of over 60 companies, with an annual turnover which increased by 64% over 15 years to US$11 billion in 1998–1999. He consolidated the various companies under an umbrella group called the "UB Group", spun off non-core and loss-making businesses and focused on the core business of alcoholic beverages.^{[citation needed]}

United's Kingfisher beer has more than a 50% market share in India's beer market. The beer is available in 52 countries outside India and leads among Indian beers in the international market.

United Spirits Ltd, the flagship company of the UB Group, achieved the historic milestone of selling 10 crore (100 million) cases, becoming the second-largest spirits company in the world by volume under Vijay Mallya's chairmanship. In 2012, Mallya ceded management control of United Spirits Limited to global spirits giant Diageo, although he retained a minority stake in the business. In February 2015 Mallya was forced to resign as Chairman of United Spirits, and he contracted to receive a $75 million severance payment as part of that deal, but the courts in India have blocked that payment.

Kingfisher Airlines, established in 2005, was a major business venture launched by Mallya. It eventually became insolvent and had to be closed down. As of October 2013, it had not paid salaries to its employees for 15 months, had lost its licence to operate as an airline, and owed more than US$1 billion in bank loans. By November 2015 the amount owed to the banks had grown to at least $1.35 billion, and there were other debts owed for taxes and to numerous small creditors. As part of the Kingfisher collapse, Mallya is accused of being a "willful defaulter" under Indian law, including accusations of money laundering, misappropriation, etc.

In March 2016, a consortium of banks approached the Supreme Court of India to stop Mallya from going abroad due to the pending money his companies owed them. As per media reports, he had already left India. On 13 March 2016 a court in Hyderabad issued a non-bailable warrant for Mallya's arrest, but it appears he is remaining at his country estate near London, England, while his lawyer contests the warrant with a higher court. On 18 April 2016, a special court in Mumbai also issued an undated non-bailable Arrest warrant against the businessman. This was issued in response to a plea by the Enforcement Directorate on 15 April before the special court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. There were allegations on him that he transferred ₹4,000 crore (US$620 million) to tax havens.

On 11 June 2016, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reported it had "provisionally attached" ₹1,411 crore (US$220 million) rupees worth of Mallya's Indian assets and properties against unpaid loans totalling ₹807 crore (US$130 million). On 3 September, it issued a second attachment order for a further ₹6,630 crore (US$1.0 billion) worth of Mallya's assets, including a farmhouse, shares in United Breweries and multiple flats in Bengaluru valued at ₹565 crore (US$88 million). By December 2016, the ED has attached a total of Rs 9661 crore worth of assets of Mallya and Kingfisher in India. This is one of the largest attachment of assets made by the ED in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act case till now. The ED also decided to send letters rogatory (LR) to the US, the UK and Europe requesting them to assist it in attachment of Mallya's over ten foreign assets.

Awards

Mallya has received several professional awards both in India and overseas:

• Honorary degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in Business Administration, by the Southern California University for Professional Studies(1997).
• "Officier de la Légion d'Honneur", a high award of recognition in France.
• "Global leader for tomorrow", World Economic Forum.
• "Entrepreneur of the Year" award at The Asian Awards (2010).