Kingfisher Airlines owner seek £400m injection

Mumbai: Kingfisher Airlines is in talks with private equity groups over securing a $400 million (£238.4 million) investment for the cash-strapped Indian carrier, the head of the business said today.
Vijay Mallya, the Bangalore-based aviation-to-liquor tycoon who also owns the Kingfisher beer brand, is under immense pressure to raise funds for his airline, which has struggled to pay its fuel bills and the contractors it relies on to maintain its planes in recent months.
Most of his rivals are in similarly pressed circumstances: India’s domestic aviation industry has recorded collective losses of about $2 billion in the past year amid a glut of overcapacity.
Mr Mallya said today that he hoped to raise part of the cash he needs from a private equity investor. "The current discussions are about... for $400 million," he told reporters on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum event in Delhi.
Early last year he made similar comments and Kingfisher Airlines was linked to TPG Partners, but no deal was struck.
Since then, India's domestic airlines have only endured more turbulence. Kingfisher, which was India’s largest private sector domestic carrier by market share last month, made a loss of about £56 million in its second quarter, a 13 per cent improvement on the same period a year earlier.
The numbers followed a round of fierce cost cuts. Revenues at the company fell 13 per cent to about £152 million.
The gloomy numbers echoed the mood across an industry sent reeling by a slump in demand after years of over-ambitious expansion.
09/11/09 Rhys Blakely/Times Online, UK

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Kingfisher Nov 2009