United Breweries Holdings Ltd (UBHL), the parent company of Vijay Mallya’s UB Group, has released a pledge on nine million shares of Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers (MCF), amounting to a 7.6% stake, according to a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges.
The fertiliser firm is currently in the midst of a battle for control with Mallya teaming up with the Saroj Poddar-led Adventz Group to counter an open offer from Pune-headquartered Deepak Fertilisers.
UBHL holds 15.05% stake in MCF, of which more than three-fourths was encumbered prior to the release of 9 million shares two weeks ago. Mallya’s total stake of 21.98% in the fertiliser firm is held through his group companies namely UBHL, Kingfisher Finvest, McDowell Holdings and United Spirits Ltd (USL).
Along with this, United Breweries Holdings has released pledges on 1.9 million shares of United Spirits and 6.2 million shares of UB Engineering. The encumbrance for all these shares had been made in favour of Sicom Ltd, a financial institution owned by the Maharashtra government, as security for a loan amount that stood at Rs 101 crore at the end of FY13, according to UBHL’s annual report for that year. The terms had included repayment in two tranches in 2013 and a final tranche in April 2014, according to the annual report.