Vijay Mallya on the prowl again

New Delhi: After recently acquiring a majority (26%) stake in the country’s largest low cost carrier Air Deccan for Rs 550 crore, Liquor baron Vijay Mallya has set his eyes on another LCC, SpiceJet. Indication of Mallya’s interest comes amidst speculation that rival carrier Jet Airways has also shown interest in acquiring SpiceJet.
However senior SpiceJet officials told FE that there was no plan to sell stake again after they offloaded 25% stake worth Rs 72 million in January this year.
The possible acquisition of SpiceJet by Mallya was fuelled when he told a news channel that though talks in this direction had not been initiated, “SpiceJet would come to him if they wanted maximum shareholder value”.
Earlier, the low cost carrier on January 11 had approved 25% fresh issue of shares worth $ 72 million. While the Tatas were allotted shares worth $17.5 million, Ishtitmar bought shares worth $25 million, Goldman Sach $15 million, BNP Paribas $5 million, KBC Fund UK $2.5 million, and Telemnix $7 million.
16/06/07 Financial Express

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Categories: Kingfisher Jun 2007, SpiceJet Jun 2007