Vijay Mallya will return to India but only if his safety and freedom are ensured

Vijay Mallya, who is under immense pressure from Indian state-run banks to repay the loans worth Rs 9000 crores that he had taken for the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, has stated that he wishes to honour his commitments, and has offered a new settlement to the main lender SBI. In a United Breweries Ltd board meeting that he attended by a video-conference, he also stated that he hopes to make a quick progress on the matter.

Enforcement Directorate of India is looking forward to extradite Mallya from the United Kingdom, the country that he fled to, but in the meeting, he said that the chairman of UBL has the support of the board and strategic partner Heineken.

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"We expressed concerns over the various issues and Mallya has assured us that he is in serious negotiations with the banks to repay the loans as soon as possible. He has said he is willing to return to India to answer all questions but he has to be assured of his safety and freedom," said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, an independent board member.

"Performance of the company has been extremely good and there is no corporate governance issue that has impacted it owing to Mallya," he added.

Executives aware of the matter said that Heineken has chosen to stand by Vijay Mallya in his tough times.

"Mallya told us he has been wrongly accused and has every intent to repay loans," said Sunil Alagh, also an independent board member. "For now, the board stands by him and sees no corporate governance issues and would monitor progress until the next (board) meeting in August."

Mallya told the board he had been wrongly accused of money laundering and there was no evidence to justify the allegations. He said he was willing to return immediately if he was assured of safe passage. "We all unanimously expressed our concerns to Mr Mallya and he told us that he is making serious efforts to repay the banks," said CY Pal, independent board member.

"He also told us he had tried to repay Kingfisher Airlines' employee dues through United Breweries Holdings but was delayed since the Karnataka High Court has frozen accounts and assets." He expressed his keenness to return to India if safe passage was assured, Pal added.

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