‘King of Good Times’ Vijay Mallya’s bankruptcy casts spotlight on India’s billionaires who’ve gone broke

Mallya is the latest in a series of super-rich Indian businessmen to fail, including Anil Ambani, Pramod Mittal, Naresh Goyal and Venugopal Dhoot

Analysts say his bankruptcy case shows the extent to which the government is now going after them to mitigate public anger over absconding tycoons

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Indian businessman Vijay Mallya. Photo: AP

Published: 3:00pm, 1 Aug 2021Updated: 8:39pm, 1 Aug 2021

After a British court declared fugitive Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya bankrupt last week, Indian social media was abuzz with discussions about the 65-year-old’s spectacular downfall and what would happen next.

Once known as the “King of Good Times” due to his flamboyant lifestyle replete with fast cars and wild parties, Mallya’s initial success came with United Breweries Group, which owns the popular Kingfisher beer. He launched Kingfisher Airlines in 2005, but it closed in 2012 as it battled financial mismanagement and mounting debt, in part due to skyrocketing fuel prices.

Over 3,000 employees were let go and the salaries owed to them – together with arrears, now amount to about Rs 500 crore (US$67 million) and are still unpaid – leaving many in financial distress.

Mallya fled to Britain in 2016 and owes more than US$1.5 billion to a consortium of banks over the failed airline, and is also wanted in India on fraud and money laundering charges.

The British court order now allows for Indian lenders, including the State Bank of India, to freeze Mallya’s assets globally or seek repayment of debt owed by Kingfisher Airlines, and senior Indian officials say they are looking to get the businessman extradited back to India to face the music.

Still, Mallya remains in Britain and is rumoured to have applied for political asylum.

Mallya is one of several high-profile wealthy businessmen whose empires have fallen, with Mumbai-based corporate lawyer Deepak Ghai saying there was also more pressure on the ruling establishment to “crack down on economic offenders, especially absconding billionaires, to mitigate public anger”.