Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya on Thursday (IST) faced a major setback in his battle to save his luxurious London house from foreclosure by Swiss bank UBS after the United Kingdom (UK) High Court rejected scores of the arguments presented by his legal team during the trial of the matter.
The judicature issued an order asking Mallya to pay a hefty amount of GBP 88,000 to UBS Investment Bank, which had issued GBP 20.4 million in the mortgage loan for his London property, and ruled in favour of UBS to take possession of Mallya's palatial Cornwall Terrace home.
UBS had called in the loan in June 2016 – 8 months before the end of the 5-year mortgage period - citing the various legal battles that Mallya had by then become embroiled in.
In its court filings, UBS said it had decided to terminate its relationship with Mallya and “wanted its money back”. UBS says it called in the loan in June 2016 because it had decided to “terminate its relationship” with Mallya because he is “one of, if not the, largest individual judgment debtor in British history”.
The Central London home was referred to in the UK High Court as a “high-class home for Vijay Mallya and his family members and United Breweries Group corporate guests”.
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Mallya’s defence team had contended that UBS had called the mortgage early and had not given the requisite 3-month notice period.
High Court judge Matthew Marsh dismissed Mallya’s claims, saying that the notice period and UBS’ decision to call in the loan was at the bank’s discretion as specified by the original mortgage contract.
The win for UBS comes just weeks before Mallya hears the final judgment on his extradition hearing on December 10.
According to the court’s judgment, Rose Capital had originally bought the building at Cornwall Terrace in 2005.
In 2007 shares in Rose capital were purchased by a company called Gladco Properties which is in turn owned by the Sileta Trust, a Mallya family trust connected to Mallya’s mother Lalita Mallya.
The home at Cornwall Terrace is the second of Mallya’s known luxury residences in the UK. He also owns the £12 million ‘Ladywalk’, a-Your data has been truncated.
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