Vijay Mallya (Kannada/Konkani:ವಿಜಯ್ ಮಲ್ಯ) (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian liquor baron and

Rajya Sabha MP. The son of industrialist Vittal Mallya, he is the Chairman of the United Breweries Group
and Kingfisher Airlines, which draws its name from United Breweries Group's flagship beer brand,
Kingfisher.

He also owns the Formula One team Force India, the Indian Premier League team Bangalore Royal
Challengers, and the I-League team East Bengal FC [3]

Mallya has an estimated net worth of $1.0 billion. [4] He receives substantial press coverage that focuses
on his lavish parties, villas, automobiles, Force India, Royal Challengers Bangalore and his yacht, the
[edit] Personal life

Mallya was born in a Konkani Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family originally from the town of Bantwal (near
Mangalore in Karnataka. He is the son of Vittal Mallya and Lalitha Ramaiah. He was educated at La
Martiniere Boys' College, Kolkata[5] and completed his degree at St. Xavier's College, Calcutta under
Calcutta University. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration by the California
Southern University[6]. However recent press reports have raised questions on the validity of this
degree and the university, saying a university by that name could not be located and another university
called South California University of Santa Ana did not have his name in their honorary degree lists.

Mallya has been married twice. His first wife was Samira, a former Air India hostess, with whom he has a
son, Sidhartha Mallya. He later married Rekha, his neighbor in Bangalore, with whom he has two
daughters, Leana and Tanya.[7]He has a stepdaughter (through his wife Rekha Mallya's earlier
marriage), Laila Mahmood, who was involved in the IPL Scandal[8] who works for Lalit Modi, the former
Indian Premier League Commissioner. [9]

[edit] Business

[edit] Breweries

Mallya took over as Chairman of United Breweries Group in 1984. 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.

In May 2007, United Breweries Group announced the all-cash acquisition of scotch whisky maker Whyte
& Mackay for £595 million (approximately Rs 6000 crore). [10] 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.

[edit] Airlines

In 2005, Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines. At present, the airline connects 32 cities. Kingfisher
Airlines obtained a 26% stake in Air Deccan, a low cost Indian airline which Mallya later acquired fully
and rebranded as Kingfisher Red. Vijay Mallya and his Jet Airways counterpart Naresh Goyal announced
an alliance after a marathon meeting on 13 October 2008 at Mumbai, India.[11]

[edit] Investment in sports

[edit] Formula One

Main article: Force India

Vitantonio Liuzzi driving for Mallya's Formula One team, Force India, at the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix.

In 2007, Mallya and the Mol family from The Netherlands bought the Spyker F1 team for 88 million
euros.[12] The team changed its name to Force India F1 from the 2008 Season.[13] Team's car VJM-01 was
named after its owners Vijay Mallya, Jan Mol and Michiel Mol.

Mallya also represents India in the FIA World Motor Sport Council, where he has a seat from 2009 to
2013.[14]

[edit] Football

Mallya's United Breweries sponsors the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan football clubs in Kolkata.[15]

He also was part of the consortium that acquired Queens Park Rangers FC, as part of the Bernie
Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal.[16]

Vijay Mallya has recently indicated its intention to buy AS Bari, a football team which plays in the Italian
Serie A.

[edit] Cricket

Mallya's flagship firm UB Group owns the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the Indian Premier
League. He won this team in an auction by paying US$111.6 million for the team.???

[edit] Political career

Mallya entered politics in 2000 and replaced Subramanian Swamy as the president of the Janata Party, a
breakaway faction of the original Janata Dal party. His party contested almost all of the 224 seats during
the Karnataka State legislative election. He campaigned vigorously through the media, but his party
failed to make any impact and did not win a single seat. Following the party's failure in the elections, it
has been largely ignored by the media. [17] recently became MP independently.

[edit] Auction purchases

Vijay Mallya is noted for his successful bidding in auction of items that are considered of great cultural
value to India.[citation needed] In 2004, he placed the winning bid of £175,000 for the sword of Tipu Sultan at
an auction in London, and brought it back to India.[18] In March 2009, Mallya successfully bid for the
belongings of Mahatma Gandhi at US$1.8 million, in a New York auction that initially caused an uproar
in India and its government tried and failed to prevent it from going under the hammer. [19][20][21]

[edit] Other business

 Establishment of Mallya Hospital in Bangalore. The hospital is located in Vittal Mallya Road,
named after his father.

 Helped to fund the Mallya Aditi International School, a private school in Bangalore.

 In March 2006, Forbes magazine described him as one of India's newest billionaires and one of
the "World's Richest People

 UB Group is the worlds No. 3 spirits conglomerate, after Diageo PLC and Pernod Ricard. Mallyas empire
also spans engineering, fertilizers, and petrochemicals