The appellate tribunal NCLAT on Friday upheld the regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) order of penalty of ₹751.83 crore on Kingfisher beer manufacturer, United Breweries.
The competition watchdog found United Breweries Ltd (UBL), Carlsberg India Pvt. and SABMiller India Ltd for alleged cartelization. CCI found that the companies have engaged in price co-ordination, supply restrictions and market sharing in different states in breach of law, it said. CCI has imposed penalty of ₹120 crore on Carlsberg India.
“The Company will examine the Judgement passed on 23.12.2022 and take legally tenable steps,” said United Breweries in its regulatory filing.
“The Company will evaluate filing of further Appeal against the NCLAT judgement before Supreme Court after examining the findings and grounds for further Appeal,” the filing added.
The competition watchdog CCI also found that a brewers’ industry body was actively involved in facilitating such cartelization and held it to be in contravention of provisions of the competition law.
Recently, Kingfisher beer manufacturer, United Breweries is planning to pump in about ₹350 crore as capital expenditure next year. The infusion is to meet the company’s expected volume growth in India. Also, UBL which is backed by the Dutch multinational brewing company Heineken is likely to pursue price increases due to offset cost impacts due to inflationary pressures.
United Breweries Ltd has reported a 66.94 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit at ₹134.12 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, mainly on the back of volume growth. It had posted a net profit of ₹80.34 crore in the year-ago period.
On Friday, the company’s scrip settled 1.98 per cent down to ₹1,685.90 on BSE.
