Their eagerness to rush through a stake hike after getting an okay from a single judge bench did take some sheen off their MNC credentials. If not poor due diligence, it implied too much reliance on the local promoter, Vijay Mallya from whose company (UBHL) the contentious stake was bought. Many creditors already had a winding up petition against UBHL for unpaid dues but the Diageo honchos might have believed that the word of law works here as well as it does back home. And they might have found it hard to believe that one judge's word is not as good as the other. Lesson learnt by the Diageo management after the annulment of its purchase of United Spirits shares from UBHL: "There can be no certainty as to the outcome of the existing or any further related legal proceedings or the timeframe within which they would be concluded."