Whyte & Mackay Acquisition

It’s been a year of takeovers for the liquor baron and airlines supremo. The much-publicised marriage between Mars and Venus—Mallya-controlled Kingfisher Airlines and Capt Gopinath’s Air Deccan—pits the former in direct competition with another Indian giant, Chairman of Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal. In May, Mallya (52) bought a 26 per cent stake in the low-cost carrier Air Deccan for Rs 550 crore. Later, he increased his stake to 46 per cent and rejigged the tariff structure to turn around the bleeding airline. In another major acquisition of the year, Mallya took over yet another liquor giant—Glasgow-based 163-year-old Whyte & Mackay— from its Chairman Vivian Immerman and other investors for $1.18 billion. The acquisition made Mallya the second-largest spirits manufacturer in the world.