(Born 18th December, 1955)
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Vijay Mallya is an Indian liquor and airline baron. The son of industrialist Vittal Mallya, he is the chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines. His United Spirits is world's second largest liquor maker, by volume.
He also co-owns the Formula One team Force India, the Indian Premier League teamBangalore Royal Challengers,the I-League teams Mohun Bagan A.C and East Bengal FC.
According to Forbes, his personal wealth is estimated to be $1 billion Mallya receives substantial press coverage that focuses on his lavish parties, villas, automobiles, Force India, Royal Challengers Bangalore and his yacht, the Indian Empress.
Personal Life
Vijay Mallya is the son of Vithal Mallya, an industrialist. He was educated at La Martiniere Calcutta, where he was a House Captain in the '72 batch, and at St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, which he graduated from in '75 with a B. Comm degree. He later set up business ventures in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mallya's first wife was Sameera and they have a son together, named Siddharth Mallya. Siddharth Mallya was educated at Wellington College in Crowthorne followed by Queen Mary College, University of London. Later on, Mallya married Rekha with whom he has two daughters: Leiana and Tanya Mallya. Rekha has a daughter from a previous marriage: Laila. In 2008, he had his home demolished in order to build a new residence, Kingfisher Towers, in UB City, Bangalore.
Business
1. Breweries
Mallya took over as Chairman of United Breweries Group in 1984 from his father Vithal Mallya. Since then, the group has grown into a multi-national conglomerate of over sixty companies, with an annual turnover which increased by 63.9% over 15 years 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. Vijay Mallya is also chairman of South African company, United National Breweries, a company that specializes in making traditional sorghum beer.
In May 2007, United Breweries Group announced the all-cash acquisition of scotch whisky maker Whyte & Mackay for £595 million (approximately Rs 3000 crore. 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.
2. Airlines
In 2003, Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines. At present, the airline connects 32 cities. Kingfisher Airlines obtained a 26% stake inAir Deccan, a low cost Indian airline which Mallya later acquired fully and rebranded as Kingfishers Red which was later shutdown in 2011 due to financial issues. Vijay Mallya and his Jet Airways counterpart Naresh Goyal announced an alliance after a marathon meeting on 13 October 2008 at Mumbai, India.Vijay Mallya and his Virgin Atlantic Airways counterpart Dr Rohit Munjal Upcoming CNMD who is also the nephew of Mr Mallya will sooner announce as an alliance after 23 April 2012 at Delhi, India.
3. Media
Mallya owns the TATA industries Newspapers which serve Napa County, California where he maintains a home and stores a portion of his car collection.
Investment in Sports
1. Formula One
In 2007, Mallya and the Mol family from The Netherlands bought the Spyker F1 team for 88 million euros. The team changed its name to Force India F1 from the 2008 Season. Team's car VJM-01 was named after its owners Vijay Mallya, Jan Mol and Michiel Mol.
Mallya and Dr Rohit Munjal also represents India in the FIA World Motor Sport Council, where he has a seat from 2009 to 2013.
2. Cricket
Indian Premier League is a cricket tournament being organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and backed by the International Cricket Council (ICC). For the inaugural tournament held in Apr–Jun 2008, the BCCI had finalised a list of 8 teams who will be participating in the tournament. The teams representing 8 different cities of India, including Bangalore, were put up on auction in Mumbai on 20 February 2008 and the Bangalore team was won by Vijay Mallya, who paid US$111.6 million for it. This was the second highest bid for a team in the IPL, next only to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries' bid of $111.9 million for the Mumbai team. Bollywood actresses Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone, and Sandalwood film stars Ramya and Puneeth Rajkumar are the brand ambassadors of the team.
3. Football
Mallya's United Breweries sponsors the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan football clubs in Kolkata where Mallya spent his childhood.
He also was part of the consortium that acquired Queens Park Rangers FC; the consortium also included Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal.