MUMBAI, Jan 11: The battle between Kishore Chhabria and UB group chief Vijay Mallya for Herbertsons Ltd has intensified with Kishore Chhabria managing to get his nominee UK Ganguli as the vice chairman of BDA Ltd (a fully-owned subsidiary of Herbertsons) within ten days of his stepping down from his former position of managing director. On the other hand, Mallya has said he is exploring various options to remove Chhabria himself from the board of BDA. "Known to be one of the closest associates of Kishore Chhabria", as a press release issued by BDA says, Chhabria (who is currently the BDA chairman) had announced Ganguli's resignation as MD on January 2, the day the resolutions of the company's annual general meeting was to be put to poll."BDA is our 100% subsidiary and we will oppose Ganguli's appointment in every way open to us. The vice chairman tamasha is yet another frivolous drama from Kishore Chhabria," Mallya said, adding that he would explore options to remove Chhabria himself from BDA.UBgroup nominees S B Lala and S R Gupte `vehemently opposed' appointment of Ganguli as well as J C Vohra, as BDA's additional director. However, Chhabria could get Ganguli and Vohra appointed as his nominees are in majority compared to the UB group's representatives on the BDA board. It may be recalled that Herbertsons was planning to oppose the reappointment of Ganguli as BDA's managing director, and Chhabria, the chairman of BDA, had withdrawn the resolution before it could be put to vote citing Ganguli's resignation from the company last week.The appointment of Ganguli as vice chairman would require the approval of shareholders which can now be deferred by Chhabria till the next AGM of BDA. Ganguli is a key figure in Chhabria's battle for the Mallya-controlled Herbertsons and is his candidate for the position of managing director at Herbertsons. Ganguli has been involved not only with managing BDA but has also been overseeing operations of other Kishore Chhabria group companies. He is known to havesteered BDA during the period when Kishore was embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with estrange elder brother Manu Chhabria over control of BDA. In a press release, Ganguli has rubbished charges of mismangement in BDA saying that the "baselessness and motive behind such allegations are obvious".Chhabria had earlier snatched BDA, which he directly controls, from elder brother Manu Chhabria, the chairman of Shaw Wallace, after a protracted legal battle in the mid-1990s. Mallya, Manu's former ally and now an arch rival, had then decided to back Kishore and offered him a 26% stake in Herbertsons. As part of the deal, BDA became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Herbertsons. Since then, Chhabria has gone on to increase his stake in Herbertsons through market purchases and presently holds around 50.32%, more than Mallya's stake of around 35%. However, Mallya has till now agreed to transfer only 43% to the Chhabrias.Sebi is presently probing as to whether Chhabria's hiking stake in Herbertsons has triggered thetakeover code. Sebi has issued show-cause notices to Kishore Chhabria and UB group chairman Vijay Mallya for acquiring shares of Herbertsons in violation law.
