Karnataka High Court Grants Conditional Permission to Advertise Mallya’s Properties to Pay Back Loan

Bengaluru: A division bench of Karnataka high court on Thursday granted conditional permission to advertise the properties of liquor baron Vijay Mallya-linked United Breweries Holdings Limited to pay back loan.

The official liquidator could advertise for tenants to the flats attached and other vacant spaces, but to lease it out the official must wait for the court's judgment. The official was appointed to recover money owed by Mallya to banks and others after the court passed the order to wind up the company in 2017.

However, the UBHL has contested the appointment of the liquidator arguing that the company had enough assets that could be liquidated to pay off the debts.

"The banks require about Rs 10,000 crore, including principal and interest, and other creditors need around Rs 2,500 crore. The UBHL at present has about Rs 7,500 crore worth assets and an additional Rs 7,500 crore from contributories, which could pay off the debts and keep the company running with the remaining amount," UBHL counsel Sajan Poovayya told the court.

Claiming that the UBHL was in no way connected to the alleged fraud, he added, "The only mistake was to sign the corporate guarantee for Kingfisher airlines."

Calling the argument strange, S S Naganand, the counsel for the consortium of banks, said, "There are no free assets that they own. They are insolvent." The counsel argued that the assets quoted by UBHL were all tangled in legal hurdles, and some of it attached by the Enforcement Directorate.

The court will resume hearing of the case on January 3.