Heineken hikes stakes in UBL, becomes biggest shareholder

Dutch breweries major Heineken upped its stake in Vijay Mallya’s United Breweries Ltd, which owns the lucrative Kingfisher beer brand, through the open market on Tuesday, NSE data showed.

The company bought 35.6 lakh shares hiking its stake in United Breweries by 1.3 percent to 38.87 percent, CNBC-TV18’s Kritika Saxena reports.

Heineken and the UB Group have been co-promoters of UBL since 2008 when the two signed an agreement to jointly sell imported beer in India.

Till recently, Heineken and UBL’s main promoter Vijay Mallya held 37.57 percent stake and 37.35 percent stakes in the company, respectively.

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CNBC-TV18 had in October reported about Heineken’s interest in increasing stake in UBL either through the open market or via a stake buy.

Sources, however, said UBL and Heineken were not able to strike an agreement owing to pricing differences, which may have left open-market purchase as the only option available for Heineken.

Shares in UBL closed at Rs 775.80 on the NSE on Tuesday, 0.41 percent higher.

Flamboyant industrialist Vijay Mallya has been in the news recently due to large debts run up at his now-grounded carrier Kingfisher Airlines, which forced him to sell a stake in United Spirits to Diageo.