The flamboyant Vijay Mallya, chairman of United Breweries, made an unsolicited bid for Glasgow-based Scotch whisky major Whyte & Mackay, valued at about Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion).
Citibank, Standard Chartered and ICIC Bank were said to be funding the acquisition.
But his plans to buy out the Scottish firm hit a roadblock with Whyte & Mackay's Chairman and Chief Executive Vivian Imerman asking for $200 million more.Mallya held talks with Imerman, who founded Whyte & Mackay with his brother-in-law Robert Tchenguiz, at the distiller's Grangemouth bottling plant.
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Investment banking sources said Mallya put a price tag of $400 million against Immerman's demand of $600 million.
Despite the setback Mallya is not yet out of the race for W&M. Mallya's United Breweries is the world's third largest liquor company, after the British Diageo and the French Pernod Ricardo.
Image: United Breweries Limited Chairman Vijay Mallya
Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Battle of the brew
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