The curtains could finally be drawn on the eight-year-old battle between Vijay Mallya and Kishore Chhabria over liquor major Herbertsons Ltd.
Mallya said he had now made a concrete offer to buy out Chhabria, after both acknowledged earlier this year that they needed to arrive at an amicable settlement.
Mallya, when contacted, said, "I have already made a formal offer to Kishore. Now he has to get back to me and say whether it is acceptable to him." This is the first concrete offer from Mallya.
A source close to Chhabria, however, said that Chhabria had not spoken to Mallya for more than four or five months or met him recently, that Chhabria had not attended the last board meeting of Herbertsons, that he had been saying for six years that the two should come to a settlement, but there had been no communication either from him to Mallya or from Mallya to him.
Kishore Chhabria had earlier said on several occasions that Mallya had not formally sounded him on a settlement, though newspaper reports had appeared suggesting that the liquor baron had done just this.
But other sources said Mallya had offered Chhabria 'well below Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion)' for his 51 per cent stake in Herbertsons.
This was far lower than the Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.20 billion) that, some sources said, Chhabria had earlier asked for.
According to these sources, Mallya would also allow Chhabria to walk away with BDA Ltd, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Herbertsons, that Kishore wrested control of from the Shaw Wallace stable. BDA owns the whisky brand Officer's Choice.
They also claimed that the two camps were now veering around to the view that a settlement should be arrived at latest by the end of December.
Last year, Kishore Chhabria was planning to join hands with his late brother Manu Chhabria, who controlled UB Group's archrival Shaw Wallace, against Mallya.
Sources said the unexpected death of Manu Chhabria had been a setback for Kishore Chhabria and that an amicable settlement with Mallya became an attractive option for him.
Chhabria had joined hands with Mallya when he walked out of Shaw Wallace, following a spat with Manu.
Mallya took him into Herbertsons and offered him a 26 per cent stake in return for BDA, which Chhabria carried with him from Shaw Wallace, and also offered him the vice-chairmanship of the Herbertsons board.
Later, Chhabria acquired Herbertsons shares from the market and raised his holding to around 51 per cent.
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