Vijay Mallya
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History
The Times of India, Mar 16 2016
Saurabh Sinha
Vijay Mallya may be a pariah today with both the Congress and the BJP disowning him, but there was a time when who's who of India had served his Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) as its independent directors. The airline, founded in 2005, saw distinguished people such as heart surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan, tennis great Vijay Amritraj, former chairman of LIC and Sebi G N Bajpai, ex-finance secretary Piyush Mankad, Rediff India founder Diwan Arun Nanda and bankers of repute serving as its independent directors.
Bajpai introduced key reforms at Sebi and prepared LIC to face the onslaught of foreign insurance giants in India once the sector was deregulated. He was a member of the governing board of IIM Lucknow. He was also chairman of the NSE and Stock Holding Corporation of India, apart from being on the board of companies like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, General Insurance Corporation, Jindal Steel and Tata Chemicals. But unlike these companies, Mallya's ambitious plans for KFA were taking it towards its doom. The fortunes of the airline, which never reported a profitable quarter, nosedived in 2007 when Mallya decided to buy Captain Gopinath's Air Deccan to fly abroad on its licence without waiting for five years as per rules.
“Suddenly , we had a fleet of 100 planes and frankly it was just too much for us to handle,“ said a person, who was among the people running KFA. Dec can founder G R Gopinath was on the combined airlines' board, but was eased out later as KFA subsumed his airline.
Then financial losses mounted, flights were slashed and payments to everyone -employees, airports, oil companies, tax authorities and provident fund -stopped. This was the time when KFA saw an exodus of its independent directors.
Among the first to sense trouble in KFA and leave the board was Dr Trehan. The eminent heart surgeon had joined in October 2008 and quit in September 2010. Amritraj quit in March 2012 on the ground that his travel schedule did not allow him to attend KFA board meetings. Within days, another independent director Anil Kumar Ganguly also quit, citing “indifferent health“.
Things came to such a pass that in the end, Mallya found it difficult to meet Sebi's listing norm, which requires that at least half of the board must be comprised independent directors. In a desperate attempt to meet the listing norm, KFA got the consent of three people in March 2012 to be independent directors. They were -former Vijaya Bank chief Manmohan Singh Kapur, corporate lawyer Lalit Bhasin and former MD of Kolhapur Sugar Mills Shrikant Ruparel.
The airline flew for just six months after this and was grounded in October 2012. As hope of KFA flying again diminished and then vanished, all remaining independent directors quit.
A profile
Mallya, was declared as 'wilful defaulter' by lenders following huge debts on his Kingfisher Airlines. He was ranked at 84th position in 2013, with a net worth of USD 800 million. Earlier, in March 2013, Mallya was dropped from Forbes global rich list, while he had moved out of the billionaire league way back in 2012. Amid huge debt burden and mounting losses at Kingfisher Airlines, Mallya's fortunes has been declining continuously over the recent years. The airline owes Rs 7,600 crore to 17 banks.
In February 2012, the banks had formally declared loan recall on KFA and began recovery process. They have recovered around Rs 2,000 crore by selling pledged shares. Already, United Bank of India has won a legal backing on its decision to declare Mallya and other top executives of the airline as "wilful defaulters".
India's largest bank SBI has also sent a notice to tag them as "wilful defaulters". State-run PNB and IDBI Bank, and private lenders Federal Bank and Axis Bank are also in the process of doing the same. Burdened with huge losses and large debts, Kingfisher Airlines stopped flying in October 2012 and its flying licence also lapsed about two months later. About Mallya Forbes India in October 2012 had said that the 'king of good times' is having nothing but bad times lately.
2006
India Today December 29, 2008
Vijay Mallya, hailed as India’s Richard Branson, acquired Glasgow-based Scotch whisky group Whyte & Mackay for £595 million in an all-cash deal in 2007, making him the second-largest spirits manufacturer in the world. It also restored partial peace with the Scotch Whisky Association which had argued that UB’s Indian-made products were not genuine whisky, as they were distilled from molasses. With W&M, the association invited him to be a member.
Mallya's financial misdeeds
March 2016: Ex-KFA employees to sue Mallya over Rs 800cr dues
The Times of India, Mar 10 2016
Former Kingfisher Airline employees have decided to take its owner Vijay Mallya to court. In a couple of weeks a petition will be filed in the Supreme Court against Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines for non payment of salaries worth Rs 800 crore. The process of filing the petition has begun with data being collected from employees who worked for the airline. Early in the day , on Wednesday , the employees, the worst hit in the financial crisis that took down Mal ya's empire, protested out side Kingfisher House in Vile Parle East.
The now defunct airline owes about 5000 of its employ ees dues in unpaid salaries “We were not paid our sala ries for a period of 18 months ill the airline finally shut down,“ said Anirud Ballal, a ormer Kingfisher official During the year and a half that the airline went down, the workforce of 5000 dwindled down to 2,000 employees.
While Mallya's Indian employees were left high and dry, he followed all the labour laws when it came to Kingfisher employees based in London, Hong Kong. “Those based in London were paid their salaries on time, they were given advance notice about the closure and were paid a compensation for loss of job,“ he said.
Meanwhile, Mallya, who owes banks over Rs 9000 crore has been reported to have fled the country .
