King of Good Times....

Whatever goes up has to come down...& It is only greed that can bring a person down.

Harshad Mehta, Lalit Modi, so many to name and now Vijay Mallaya. Missing my father to have a heated debate on this..as we had during the fall of big companies.

Once called the "King of Good Times" and "the playboy of the East" due to his extravagant lifestyle, Mallya and his companies have been embroiled in financial controversies and difficulties in recent years, and especially since 2012.

Mallya became the Chairman of United Breweries Group in 1983 at the age of 28, following his father Vittal Mallaya'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. UB Group is an Indian conglomerate with interests in beverage alcohol, aviation infrastructure, real estate and fertiliser among others.

Vittal’s son and sole heir Vijay Mallya started Kingfisher Airlines almost on a whim in 2005, with a sudden announcement at a board meeting, disregarding warnings by his trusted lieutenants about a business which required insane amounts of cash and gave little or no returns. But once the airline was set up, anyone who travelled on it sang its praises due to excellent service standards, set by Mallya himself. However, never in all of its existence did Kingfisher Airlines turn in a profit though.

Today a consortium of 17 state-owned and private banks, led by State Bank of India have alleged that Mallya diverted some Rs 4000 crore of the money he borrowed from them to offshore tax havens like Mauritius and the Cayman Islands.

As per the disclosure of property - as required by MP's of Rajya Sabha, he has no houses. So what about all the lavish houses in Mumbai and Goa, where he had parties, the answer is; they are in the balance sheets of United Spirits Limited (USL), Mr Mallya's flagship spirits company, sold to UK-based liquor giant Diageo in 2013.

Diageo found the company it owned had 13 properties on its balance sheet, including Mr Mallya's sea-facing house in Mumbai, his bungalow on Sardar Patel Marg, Delhi and the splashy Kingfisher Villa in Goa.

So the liquor company had paid for a multitude of mansions for Mr Mallya's private use.

Diageo's scrutiny also suggested that as the airline's debt entangled Mr Mallya, a billionaire, USL signed an agreement with a company called PE Data, nominated by Mr Mallya, granting it first rights to buy these properties; but Diageo has done with the agreement, with PE after investigations, finding it to be a defunct company.

Clouds of uncertainty loom over Virat Kohli’s IPL team, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).Mallya bought the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise in 2008 for $111.6 million (about Rs 476 crore). RCB has reported substantial losses since then. Royal Challenge Sports Pvt Ltd (RCSPL).

Mallya resigned with effect from February 25, 2016, as chairman and non-executive director of United Spirits Ltd (USL) and as director of RCSPL, as part of a sweetheart deal with UK-based Diageo. RCB was owned by USL.

Mallya has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks after a sweetheart deal he inked with Diageo, the current controlling owner of United Spirits, under which he is getting Rs 515 crore (USD 75 million) out of which has already paid USD 40 million,to exit from the board of the company founded by his family and taken to the top by him.

Grounding of Kingfisher Airlines in 2012, under huge financial stress, led to one-by-one unravelling of Mallya's huge business empire that once consisted of beer, spirits, fertilisers, engineering and aviation businesses along with huge real estate assets.

Read more at: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/diageo-to-review-tribunal-order-says-3640mn-paid-to-mallya_5855761.html?utm_source=ref_article

Well he is still communicating with the world, without disclosing his whereabouts, that is the world we are living in today...