Rs1,081 crore blow to Kingfisher in first half

Mumbai: Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, India’s second largest private airline by passengers carried, made a consolidated operating loss of Rs1,081 crore in the first half of fiscal 2009 after its March 2008 merger with Deccan Aviation Ltd, according to a presentation made to its investors in Bangalore in late September that has been reviewed by Mint.
The loss, made largely on account of high fuel costs, is the first financial detail of the airline’s consolidated operation that is coming to light.
Last week, Kingfisher Airlines announced a loss of Rs188 crore for the nine-month period ended 30 March on revenue of Rs1,441.4 crore. Those numbers, however, were just the financials of the erstwhile Deccan Aviation which got merged with Kingfisher.
In June 2007, Kingfisher acquired a 26% stake in Deccan Aviation, which was operating the country’s largest low-fare carrier Air Deccan. The stake was raised to 50% and eventually, in April, Kingfisher was merged with Deccan with the latter choosing to keep the former’s name.
The operating losses of the merged entity are on a total revenue of Rs2,634 crore between April and September when the carrier spent Rs1,694 crore on fuel, the presentation said.
A company’s operating loss is arrived at before accounting for expenses such as interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization.
26/10/08 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Categories: Kingfisher Oct 2008