6,000 crore to 9,000 crore, as the government and a few media platforms have alleged that he ran away without paying it back. Once upon a time, he ranked 40 on the Forbes list and his brand was 2nd largest in the world. From being such a wealthy businessman, how his life has turned into debt, protests and humiliations.
Vittal Mallya was a rich business man. As he passed away, all the business empire was inherited to Vijay mallya. He received around 300 crores, and he eventually expanded to $1.6 billion dollars during his peak. He entered into the magazine, sports, chemical and engineering sectors but his real growth came from the Kingfisher liquor brand.
After making massive profits and growth in his business career. Every story has a good and bad journey too.
The Downfall
When Vijay Mallya entered the airline industry, it was one of the biggest and luxury airlines called Kingfisher. It has provided services which no other airlines have ever done. From expensive hot food and premium experience to gifts. It set a bench mark were people liked and travelled a lot on the Kingfisher airlines. As you know, this business was capital intensive, which required high investment. The real story of debts began, he started taking loans and debts for customer satisfaction and was greedy to expand internationally.
Initially, it was manageable and worked effectively with business, but as time passed, a huge recession hit across the globe in 2008, where crude oil prices had increased rapidly and his vision of international business was stopped. The money which he invested had mere benefits or returns. He took more loans, which eventually became huge debts and burdens. The IDBI bank chairperson was even arrested for approving a 900 crore loan to Kingfisher, when the business was about to fail. He paid a huge loss by merging Air Deccan into Kingfisher, creating losses and creating more problems than profits.
Finally, when the employees were not paid salaries for the past 6 months, huge protests and humiliations began. As the pressure was building up more and more, he left India and started operating from London. The government of India has confiscated his properties in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
Today, he is still dealing with court cases both in London and India. In his recent podcast with Raj Shamani, where he expressed all his life story and cleared the allegations regarding his business and reasons for fleeing to London. We don't know about the future, but he has established himself as a great business man with few obstacles and hindrances in his journey.
