Anil Ambani in race to buy out SpiceJet

Mumbai: After losing the battle to acquire the country’s largest low-fare carrier Air Deccan to Vijay Mallya in May last year, Anil Ambani, chairman of the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-Adag), is once again pursuing his ambitions to enter the aviation business and has initiated buyout talks with Gurgaon-based low-fare carrier SpiceJet.
Again, the battle is going to be tough for Ambani as full- service carrier Kingfisher Airlines Ltd’s controlling shareholder Mallya and the country’s largest private carrier Jet Airways (India) Ltd are also in the race for picking up a stake in SpiceJet, which completed three years of operations on 23 May.
SpiceJet is valued at around Rs755 crore on the stock markets. With 17 aircraft, it ranks the lowest in terms of the cost of operations among airlines in India and operates 117 flights daily to 17 cities—Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bagdogra, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Guwahati, Goa, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Srinagar, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam.
A person familiar with the matter who did not want to be identified said SpiceJet has appointed investment banking and corporate advisory firm NM Rothschild and Sons Ltd for raising funds.
06/06/08 P.R. Sanjai and Baiju Kalesh/Livemint

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Categories: SpiceJet Jun 2008