ED plans to attach Mallya assets, shares

Move comes after he was declared proclaimed offender last week

The Enforcement Directorate is planning to attach personal assets of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, including shares pledged with banks and free assets provided as guarantee.

Enforcement officers sought details of shares pledged from YES Bank, HDFC Bank and other financial institutions.

The assets are estimated to be worth over Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion).

The move came after Mallya was declared proclaimed offender under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in court last week, after he failed to appear before it on July 29.

“We are collating shares pledged by Mallya and his family to banks and financial institutions.

"We have already received details from a few banks and are anticipating few more in this week,” a senior ED officer told Business Standard.

“After examining the details we will seek an attachment order from the court under sections 82 and 83 of Code of Criminal Procedure, which is applied on proclaimed offenders,” added the officer.

As of June this year, Mallya, son Siddharth and mother Lalitha own about 31 per cent shares in United Breweries, through various companies, worth about Rs 6,300 crore (Rs 63 billion).

About 48 per cent or Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) of these shares are pledged.

United Breweries, the beverage company that makes Kingfisher beer, which Mallya built into the country's largest beer brand, is now 42.22 per cent owned by Dutch beverage maker Heineken.

Mallya's 3.72 per cent stake in United Spirits is valued at Rs 1,250 crore (Rs 12.5 billion), of which nearly half was pledged.

The value of Mallya's shareholding in other companies is not so significant. His 52 per cent shareholding in United Breweries (Holdings) is worth Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.1 billion), of which 37 per cent was pledged as on June 2016.

Also, some of UBHL shares have been used as securities against loans availed from HDFC Bank and Yes Bank.

Image: Vijay Mallya. Photograph: PTI