Karnataka HC summons Mallya over UBHL winding-up pleas

Answering repeated shareholder queries about uncleared dues of United Breweries Holdings Ltd (UBHL) at the company’s Annual General Meeting last Thursday doesn’t seem to be the end of the questions Vijay Mallya may have to answer.

Today the Karnataka High Court pulled up UBHL for non-compliance of its earlier order and asked UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya to make a personal appearance before it on Tuesday  Vineetha Athrey of CNBC-TV18 reports on the crucial court action. Also read: United Spirits to be Diageo's sales agent in India On May 24, 2013 the Karnataka High Court had passed an interim order allowing the USL-Diageo deal to go through. According to this special order which was passed in response to UBHL’s application seeking permission to sell the shares that it owns in USL to Diageo, while winding up petitions were being heard, the court had directed UBHL to go ahead with the deal, but file certain key documents such as the Audit Report of the deal. Now three-and-a-half months later, UBHL has failed to comply with this order and has still not filed the Audit Report. Owing to this, the Karnataka High Court has summoned Vijay Mallya to the hearing tomorrow. The timing of this court directive is crucial, since Mallya had, last Thursday, said that he is in talks with at least two of these creditors who had initiated the proceedings, to explore an out-of-court settlement soon. So, all eyes are on the High Court now.