46 lakh UB shares held by McDowell Holdings sold for Rs 678 crore

Resolution Professional of McDowell Holdings Ltd Konduru Prasanth Raju has informed the exchanges that the 46,28,452 investee shares of McDowell Holdings Ltd pertaining to United Breweries Ltd have been transferred from Demat Account held in McDowell Holdings to State Bank of India (SBI) SAMV Branch as per the directions of the Enforcement Directorate. He further informed that State Bank of India has sold the shares to SBI Mutual Fund for Rs 1,465.80 per share for an amount of Rs 678 crore.

McDowell Holdings had 63.45 lakh shares of United Breweries, which were valued at Rs 945 crore.

McDowell Holdings is undergoing corporate insolvency resolution process brought by Sunstar Hotels and Estates Ltd after the former defaulted on a payment of Rs 16.80 crore. The insolvency plea of Sunstar Hotels against Mcdowell Holdings was admitted by the Bengaluru bench of the NCLT in April 2022.

The Company owed Rs 18.65 crore to its creditors as per the data available with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI).

Five resolution applicants — Anirudh Agro Farms Pvt Ltd. Kundan Care Products, Khandwala Finstock Pvt Ltd, Phoenix Theme Infra Projects LLP and SSGVD enterprises LLP – have submitted EoIs.

All the five resolution applicants had submitted their resolution plan and the CoC had asked all of them to revise their resolution plan.

McDowell Holdings was a company owned primarily by Vijay Mallya (United Brewaries), who in 2008 along with other Promoters held 36.6% share capital. The promoter holding further increased to 45% in 2012. However, after invocation of pledge by various lenders, promoter’s shareholding fell to 17.99% in 2017. The promoter’s shareholding McDowell Holdings is held only by UB Holding Limited, which is in liquidation, having about 2.27% shareholding. Vijay Mallya had only 2 equity shares which were also attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). In 2018, the ED attached 15.73% of promoter’s holding and later these shares were transferred to the Recovery Officer of Debt Recovery Tribunal -II, Bangalore leaving behind promoter shareholding of only 2.27% of the share capital of 2nd Respondent. In the year 2020-21 the 15.73% shares transferred to the Recovery Officer, DRT-II, Bangalore were fully sold in the stock market.

Also Read: Shareholders’ fight to save erstwhile Vijay Mallya firm Mcdowell Holdings from insolvency