Profile of Vijay Mallya

Vijay Mallya
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Vijay Mallya

Born 18 December 1955 (1955-12-18) (age 53)
Bantwal, Karnataka, India
Occupation Member of Parliament of:
Rajya Sabha
Chairman of:
United Breweries Group,
Kingfisher Airlines,
Force India,
Royal Challengers Bangalore,
URBB
Net worth ▲US$760 million [1]
Dr. Vijay Mallya (Kannada/Konkani:ವಿಜಯ್ ಮಲ್ಯ, born 18 December 1955) is an Indian drinks and aviation billionaire and former Rajya Sabha MP. The son of industrialist Vittal Mallya, he is the Chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines, which draws its name from United Breweries Group's flagship beer brand, Kingfisher.

Mallya has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion.[2] He receives substantial press coverage that focuses on his lavish parties and his hotels, automobiles, Formula One team Force India, IPL Cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore and his yacht, the Indian Empress.

Personal life
Mallya is originally from the town of Bantwal (near Mangalore) in Karnataka. He was educated at La Martiniere Boys' College, Kolkata[3] and completed his degree from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta under Calcutta University. He was conferred a Doctorate in Philosophy in Business Administration by some university in California.

Mallya is married twice. His first wife was Sameera and they have a son together, named Sidhartha Vijay Mallya. Later on, he married Rekha and has two daughters Leana Mallya, Tanya Mallya .

Mallya took over as Chairman of the United Breweries Group in 1984. Since then, the group has grown into a multi-national conglomerate of over sixty companies with an annual turnover which has increased by 639% to US$11.2 billion in 1998-1999 . The focal business areas of the group encompass alcoholic beverages, life sciences, engineering, agriculture, chemicals, information technology, aviation and leisure. He owned McDowell Crest.

In May 2007, United Breweries Group announced the all-cash acquisition of scotch whisky maker Whyte & Mackay for £595 million (approximately Rs 6000 crore).[4] In 2005 he took over Millennium Breweries Ltd (formerly known as Inertia Industries Ltd), which owned the two premium beer brands named Sandpiper and Zingaro.

Airlines

A hoarding of Kingfisher Airlines with Vijay Mallya's signatureIn 2005, Vijay Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines. At present, the airline connects 32 cities. Kingfisher Airlines obtained a 26% stake in Air Deccan, a low cost Indian airline which Mallya later acquired fully and integrated into his Kingfisher fleet, rebranding it as Kingfisher Red. Vijay Mallya and his Jet Airways counterpart Naresh Goyal announced an alliance after a marathon meeting on 13 October 2008 at Mumbai, India.[5]

Association with sports
Formula One


Vitantonio Liuzzi driving for Mallya's Formula One team, Force India, at the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix.In 2007, Mallya and the Mol family from The Netherlands bought the Spyker F1 team for 88 million euros.[6] The team changed its name to Force India F1 from the 2008 Season.[7] Team's car VJM-01 was named after its owners Vijay Mallya, Jan Mol and Michiel Mol.

Mallya also represents India in the FIA World Motor Sport Council, where he has a seat from 2009 to 2013.[8]

Football
Mallya's United Breweries sponsors the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan football clubs in Kolkata.[9]

He also was part of the consortium that acquired Queens Park Rangers FC, as part of the Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal.[10]

Cricket
Mallya's flagship firm UB Group owns the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the Indian Premier League. He won this team in an auction by paying US$111.6 million for the team. The Royal Challengers Bangalore team includes players like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Robin Uthappa, Mark Boucher, Sunil Joshi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Ross Taylor and Dale Steyn.

Horse racing
Mallya also owns the company, United Racing and Bloodstock Breeders (URBB) which has interests in horse racing. URBB runs the Kunigal stud farm, under lease from the Government of Karnataka.