INDIA: Airline Tycoon Vijay Mallya Goes Away From Country Owing $1bn

Billionaire liquor baron Vijay Mallya left India owing $1bn in unpaid loans, a weeks after stepping down as chairman of United Spirits, the Indian arm of Britain’s beverage giant, Diageo.

The heavily indebted Indian drinks baron, Vijay Mallya, has left the country, the supreme court heard on Wednesday, as banks lined up to try to recover more than $1bn in unpaid loans.

The man once nicknamed ‘India’s Richard Branson’ is thought to have gone to London, leaving creditors with massive unpaid loans.

A group of mainly state-run banks had asked the supreme court to prevent the flamboyant businessman, once nicknamed “India’s Richard Branson”, from quitting the country.

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But the attorney general, Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared in court for the consortium of banks, said the 60-year-old had left on 2 March after stepping down as chairman of United Spirits, the Indian arm of Britain’s beverage giant, Diageo, following allegations of financial lapses.

“Agencies and the CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] have told me he left the country on the second of March,” Rohatgi told the court. “Please ask Mr Mallya to come back and appear in the supreme court and disclose all his assets.”

Rohatgi said the state was not looking to take action against Mallya, who is thought to be in London, but wanted him to settle debts worth more than $1.3bn.

Mallya announced last month he planned to move to Britain to be closer to his children. But in an emailed statement to media on Sunday he said he had no plans to run away from his creditors and was hurt the press was painting him “as an absconder”.

Mallya was known as the “King of Good Times” before the 2012 collapse of his Kingfisher Airlines, which left thousands of workers unemployed and millions of dollars in unpaid bills.

As his beverages business flourished during the early 2000s he diversified into other areas and in 2005 launched Kingfisher Airlines, named after his company’s best-known beer.

His profile rose further when he acquired a stake in the Force India formula one team and ownership of the Royal Challengers Bangalore cricket team. His fortune reached a peak of $1.6bn in 2007.

But he was unable to stop Kingfisher from haemorrhaging cash, and following a pilots’ strike over unpaid wages, the airline was grounded in 2012 having never made a profit.

The consortium of mainly state-run banks seeking action against Mallya had also sought his arrest and the confiscation of his passport. But the debt recovery tribunal and the High Court in southern India, where a separate petition has also been filed, have yet to rule on those requests.

The court said it would issue a notice seeking a response from the businessman on the repayment of the loans.

Calls by to Mallya’s mobile and those of his representatives went unanswered on Wednesday.