BENGALURU (Reuters) - An Indian tribunal has temporarily halted a $75 million settlement due to be paid by spirits giant Diageo Plc (L:DGE) to liquor baron Vijay Mallya, after he resigned as chairman of Diageo unit United Spirits (NS:UNSP).
The court ruled in favor of a group of creditor banks, owed money by Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher (LON:KGF) Airlines, and who had argued they had the 'first right' to that money.
Kingfisher, which stopped flying more than three years ago, had $1.4 billion in debts as of September 2013, according to corporate filings from the time.
Mallya said in a statement on Sunday that he was in talks with banks for a one-time settlement of Kingfisher's debt, adding that he had no plans to run away from his creditors.
