Vijay Mallya fights UBS move to foreclose London house loan

Vijay Mallya

UBS Group AG is working towards foreclosure of the 20.4 million-pound mortgage loan on Vijay Mallya's London house, as per a report by Bloomberg. The mortgage was taken out by Rose Capital Ventures and it has been unable to repay it, and the bank is seeking possession of the property.

This property, overlooking the Regent Park, was used by Mallya as his family home. He wanted to turn the site into a palatial property, according to UBS' attorney Thomas Grant.

"At the end of the day, we are simply saying you haven't paid your mortgage loan, as per the term, therefore we seek a remedy given to us, which is possession," Grant told a London court.

Based in British Virgin Islands, Rose Capital Ventures is owned by one of Mallya's family trusts, the report said.

Mallya has taken over 1 billion pounds worth of loans for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airways. He is engaged in civil lawsuits in India and the UK, and also has fraud charges against him.

Rose Capital Ventures’ lawyers said that UBS called the mortgage in early without an explanation, after giving them a guarantee that the bank would not do so. According to Rose’s filings, this was wrongful of the lender and has caused Rose to be unable to repay the loan.

To counter this, UBS said it had called in the mortgage early as it wanted to end the relationship with Mallya and all entities associated with him after it was reported that he was a willful defaulter over his airlines. UBS clarified that the loan expired in March 2017.

Mallya's son Sidhartha and his mother Lalitha have been given the right to remain on the property by Rose, under a contractual license. The full trial of the London property is scheduled to start in May.