In a major jolt to liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the Supreme Court Monday ordered the winding up of United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd (UBHL), the parent company of UB Group, for recovering dues payable by the UBHL-promoted defunct Kingfisher Airlines Limited.
As per the report by ToI, a bench of Justices U U Lalit, Vineet Saran and S Ravindra Bhat upheld the decision of Karnataka High Court verdict on winding up the company, thereby dismissing the plea filed by UBHL.
Earlier, in February, Karnataka HC had dismissed the plea by the firm. UBHL has challenged the March 6 order of the Karnataka High Court upholding the decision of a single judge to wind up the company.
UBHL had claimed that the market value of the company’s assets is more than the debts. However, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, SBI-led consortium of lender banks opposed the plea and asserted that the firm still owed over Rs 11,000 crore.
Mallya owns a 52.34 percent in United Breweries Holdings Limited.
UBHL had given corporate guarantees for loans to run Kingfisher, which has virtually caused the collapse of Mallya's liquor empire.
Earlier, the Debt Recovery Tribunal here had ordered the SBI-led consortium of banks to start the process of recovering over Rs 6,203 crore, at 11.5 per cent annual interest rate, from the embattled tycoon and his companies in another Kingfisher Airlines case.
(With inputs from PTI)
