Considering that his intent is to divest part of his equity stake, the game plan could be to fetch him a better price in the near future.

At least, that's how it looks following his recent move that enables him to pick up a large chunk of 23,59,500 equity shares of Rs 10 each of United Breweries at a price of Rs 35. The stock was last traded at Rs 47 on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday.

A UB group official told The Financial Express that the company has issued 23,59,500 equity shares of Rs 10 each to Mallya at Rs 35 per share on conversion of 23,59,500 convertible warrants of Re 1 each of the company, which was purchased by him from McDowell & Co, a group arm of the UB group.

"A few months ago UB had allotted 2.5crore convertible warrants of Re 1 each to McDowell & Co with a right to convert each warrant into one equity share of Rs 10 each at a premium of Rs 25 per share," a senior official with McDowell said.

According to the official, Mallya is planning to buy up to 50 lakh of these warrants. It is not immediately known whether McDowell & Co contemplates to utilise the balance warrants. "With the proposed conversion of warrants his stake will go up further in UB. Market forces will determine the price at which the remaining convertible warrants will be allotted to him," he said.

Mallya has purchased 23,59,500 of these warrants from McDowell and exercised the right of conversion by paying the balance amount of Rs 34 per share. Following this, McDowell had paid back the funds to UB that the company received while accepting the warrants few months ago.

Consequent to the warrants conversion, United Breweries' paid-up capital has increased to Rs 37.73 crore from Rs 35.37 crore.

The following is the personalshareholding of Mallya and his family in UB: Vijay Mallya has 23,93,100 equity shares of Rs 10 each which represents 6.34 per cent of the total subscribed capital of 3,77,34,927 shares; with son Sidhartha he jointly holds 21,72,466 shares (5.75 per cent); along with wife Ritu another 57,000 shares (0.15 per cent) and through Sidhartha one more chunk of 1,82,000 shares (0.48 per cent).

Mallya had last week announced his intention to dilute about 15-20 per cent of his stake in the company to a prospective investor. The company is reported to have initiated preliminary talks with some leading foreign firms for the purpose. However, senior company officials declined to comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, the share price of United Breweries at the National Stock Exchange is hovering at Rs 43.50 after a 52-week high of Rs 47 per share. Industry analysts said additional acquisition of shares will help Mallya garner a good price for his equity stake at the time of dilution.