The Indian Executive Newsmakers

Vijay Mallya, Chairman of United Breweries:

Vijay Mallya takes the third spot on the list. He has been in the news as his company United Spirits is in talks with UK-based multinational liquor giant Diageo plc, the world's largest distiller and maker of well-known brands, for selling equity stake to the latter. There have been speculations over how Mallya will structure a deal to offload a strategic stake in United Spirits (USL) to Diageo. The stake sale is basically to get United Spirits out of a high-debt position that it presently is in, said Sharan Lillaney, an analyst at Angel Broking who tracks both United Spirits and Kingfisher Airlines.

Kingfisher Airlines having failed and bankers saying they will not lend further to debt-ridden Kingfisher, the liquor baron is trying all he can. SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri had said "(Vijay) Mallya is keen to keep control of Kingfisher... So the sense we have from him is that he is willing to do everything possible, including big sacrifices," as reported by NDTV Profit.