Reacting to the development, Prakash Mirpuri, Vice-President (Corporate Communications), UB Group, said in a statement: “The judgment is in excess of 150 pages, which requires us to first study it after a copy is made available to us, and, thereafter, consider our options. Till then we are unable to comment, except to say that one of the obvious options that we have is to prefer an appeal before the Supreme Court when it re-opens in January.”
Diageo in a statement said, “We are awaiting receipt of the detailed written order of the division bench of the Court of Appeal in Karnataka. We do not believe that there are any grounds for declaring the sale of shares in USL purchased by Diageo on July 4 from UBHL as void. We are disappointed to hear that the court has over-ruled the previous order of the High Court of Karnataka, granting leave to UBHL under Sec. 536 and 537 of the Companies Act in respect of the five winding up petitions then pending against UBHL to enable the sale of the USL shares by UBHL to take place. We are also disappointed, as a bona fide purchaser for value of the USL shares, that we have been brought into the private dispute between Kingfisher and its creditors. Once we receive the full written order, we will review the detail of that order. We confirm that we intend to appeal the matter further.”
