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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Maran buys 7.4% in SpiceJet

NEW DELHI: Sun TV owner Kalanithi Maran has bought 7.4% equity in SpiceJet for Rs 135 crore, taking his direct stake to 25%. SpiceJet informed off-market transaction in a filing to BSE. This is part of the deal happened in earlier this year, when Maran had decided to buy US distress fund owner Wilbur Ross and airline promoter Bhulo Kansagara's combined 37.7% stake.

After raising his stake to 17.7% last week, Maran and his aviation arm KAL Airways has now bought about 2.9 crore shares for Rs 47.25 apiece. He has an option to acquire another 20% stake through an open offer. Following the acquisition by Maran, SpiceJet's CEO Sanjay Agarwal quit the airline and joined Kingfisher. SpiceJet appointed Neil Raymond Mills as its CEO. Mills was recently part of thestartupteamofFlyDubai , a low cost associate of Emirates. Before that, he was part of EasyJet.

There is a growing speculation that Maran may be eying Wadia Group-owned GoAir. At present, SpiceJet is India's second largest LCC with a 12.6% market share, behind IndiGo at 16.4%. GoAir had a share of 5.7%. So acquiring GoAir will make SpiceJet the biggest LCC in the country.

Source : Times of India

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