While others can teach you how to make money, Vijay Mallya can give lessons on how to lose money; lots of it
Forbes India has a fascinating article on Vijay Mallya’s follies – on how he converted a promising airline into a bankrupt one and how he lost millions of public money in the process. An excerpt:
Things don’t look sanguine for Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines. Lenders are getting impatient. What they see is a man destined to preside over the biggest bankruptcy in Indian business history. On their part, the bankers are grappling with an animal of a kind they haven’t dealt with before. Banks usually lend against collateral in the form of the assets , and they can use that to arm-twist the promoters into paying up. But in Mallya’s case, what they have are intangibles-like the Kingfisher brand. Blame it on a system that is unable to push through a liquidation or a change in management; or on a wily entrepreneur who knows the only thing bankers have to go by is hope that he’ll put a do-able plan in place. But the bankers’ hope hangs on a flimsy thread.
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