A devout Hindu, beer baron and a tenacious businessman and Parliamentarian. Who can juggle all these hats with panache? Turn to Vijay Mallya.
Apart from being a savvy businessman, Vijay Mallya is also a keen aviator, yachtsman and a car racing enthusiast. Mallya believes in the Branson motto that the chief executive can be the best brand ambassador for his company, and flies Kingfisher, drinks Kingfisher and lives life king-size.
Son of industrialist Vittal Mallya, India’s Richard Branson has been known for his aggressive gambles, expensive lifestyles and a love for living it up. All the way up the skies, as his aviation adventures show. Under his command, the UB empire, which was primarily focused on alcoholic beverages, has grown into a conglomerate of over 60 companies. Vijay Mallya has expanded his businesses into sectors as diverse as travel, biosciences, chemicals, information technology and agriculture.
During his 24-year chairmanship of the UB group, Vijay Mallya has acquired several companies in India and abroad. The more recent ones are Air Deccan, Whyte & Mackay, Scottish & Newcastle and Epic Aircraf. Of course, all these apart from Spyker, which he has now renamed as Team Force India.
Mallya has been dabbling in Formula One for quite some time. He is quite pally with Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One supremo, and has lobbied incessantly for bringing F1 racing to India. He dipped his toes into F1 by sponsoring Toyota Panasonic Racing, throwing a lavish party at Monaco this year, and has now bought Spyker F1. Reportedly, Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandok hope to drive for Spyker. Adrian Sutil, who has driven well for Spyker this year has already been signed for the 2008 season. At least with Mallya at the helm, Spyker’s financial problems are hopefully gone for good.
Vijay Mallya, chairman of United Breweries is the first Indian to own a Forumla One team. After Kingfisher beer, Kingfisher mineral water and Kingfisher-Deccan, Vijay Mallya stepped into the Formula One track with ease. For those who know Vijay Mallya for long, it’s no surprise that he plunged into the world of fast cars and burning rubber. His career has been strewn with pitched battles fought to acquire companies, revival stories and rapid scaling-up of market share.
However, his battle for Shaw Wallace was the bitterest and longest battle he had fought. In the early 80s, a decade before the dawn of liberalisation in India, Manu Chhabria, a Dubai-based businessman bought shares in Shaw Wallace, an Indian spirits maker. Shaw Wallace commanded a vast market share, which Vijay Mallya wanted to buy. He made several attempts to buy Shaw Wallace, but all attempts his thwarted by Manu and later, his wife who took command of the Shaw Wallace empire. Bogged down in courts and legal files, finally Vijay Mallya took the reins at Shaw Wallace, which he coveted for two decades. The court cases were dropped and the hatchets buried. The Shaw Wallace acquisition made Vijay Mallya the undisputed king of the alcoholic beverages market in India.
Vijay Mallya’ first big acquisition was Berger Paints, which he acquired in 1988. This was one of the first and most prominent overseas buyouts by an Indian. After its leveraged buyout, Berger was successfully listed on several bourses abroad. After raising its valuation manifold, Vijay Mallya sold off Berger paints for a handsome profit — 66 million dollars - in 1996.
Whisky in India has always been distilled from molasses-based spirits. Mallya and other whisky-makers always had differences with foreign scotch whisky makers over the nomenclature of whisky. Mallya used to argue that whatever tastes like whisky should be called whisky. His domestic liquor story has strongly lobbied for strong tariff walls to prevent easy entry of scotch whisky into India. Now that he owns the premium whskey maker Whyte & Mackay, Vijay Mallya finds himself in both camps in one go. He has to grow his domestic whisky brands, at the same time selling whisky from Whyte & Mackay stable in the growing Indian market. Mallya has already promised to bring three whisky brands from Whyte & Mackay into India. Vijay Mallya haggled an year for Whyte & Mackay, which he acquired this year. The promoters, he says, had not made up their minds to sell the company even at a late stage. Besides, the prices of whisky were going up steadily, making a mutually-acceptable vluation difficult. However, patience paid off and Vijay Mallya finally took control of the company whose brands he coveted for long.
The Air Deccan acquisition was not a smooth job. Initially, Kingfisher was seen to be interested in Air Sahara, which was up for sale. However, the valuation seemed too high, and Viay Mallya backed out of the bids. Later, rival Jet Airways snapped up Air Sahara at a higher price. In a way, this forced Vijay Mallya’s hand to bid for Air Deccan, the cash-strapped low-cost airline which was up for sale. Deccan needed funds; Mallya needed scale. Besides, there was the danger that a rival might buy Air Deccan, giving it immediate market share and command over the largest route network. The easiest thing to do was to buy Air Deccan, which had a wide aviation network which it had built up at a heavy cost. Mallya moved in for the kill before Jet or anyone else could make a move. After his acquisition of Air Deccan, Vijay Mallya quickly got Air Deccan rebranded. As part of the synergisation process, routes were rationalised, staff were shared and Air Deccan aircraft took on Kingfisher’s bright red & white colours. In a determined move to turn around the airline, Mallya hiked Air Deccan fares and re-imposed congestion charges which were abandoned before. Now, as part of his plan to fly Kingfisher Airlines abroad, Vijay Mallya plans to piggyback Air Deccan, which will receive overseas flying rights next year.
Vijay Mallya is also a Rashtra Sabha (Upper House) member of the Parliament from Janata Party. He was also conferred a Doctorate of Philosophy in Business Administration, by the Southern California University, Irvine. He was also nominated as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.
Beer may be close to his heart, but God is closer. The God, at least here, is not Bacchus. Vijay Mallya sticks to his fasting routines — an entire 42 days — and pilgrimages like a man possessed. He treks up to the hill temple of Sabarimala Ayyappan in Kerala every year for his annual darshan. In the late 90s, he got the shrine’s sanctum sanctorum covered in gold at at cost of Rs 1 crore. He is also a keen disciple of Sr Sri Ravi Shankar and swears by the Art of Living. Living Life King Size, that is. Let’s raise a toast to that!
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