Indian regulator gives GoAir greenlight for IPO – ch-aviation

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has given Go Airlines (India) Private Limited t/a Go First (G8, Mumbai Int’l) the go-ahead for its planned debut on the Mumbai Stock Exchange (BSE), sources familiar with developments have told India’s Economic Times newspaper.
“Sebi has cleared the proposal with some observations,” said one of the sources, who said the greenlight came on Thursday, August 26.
In its draft prospectus, GoFirst listed its shareholders as:
The remaining 2.94% is held by various smaller shareholders.
According to the Economic Times, SEBI’s approval came after Jehangir Wadia, one of the airline’s promoters and the younger son of Wadia Group patriarch Nusli Wadia, resigned from the boards of Britannia Industries and Bombay Burmah Group after having stepped down as the managing director of Go Airlines as well as Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Co. earlier in the year. His exiting all listed companies under the conglomerate was one of the pre-requisites SEBI had set for its approval for Go First, previously known as GoAir (G8, Mumbai Int’l), to list.
“SEBI has cleared the proposal with some observations,” said one of the people cited above.
The budget carrier can now move to the next step – the filing of a final red herring prospectus which incorporates SEBI’s comments. It can also start road shows to garner investor interest. However, it is uncertain whether investors currently have an appetite for airline stocks given the uncertainty that currently pervades the global travel market.
Go First plans to raise up to INR36 billion rupees (USD490 million) for use in paying off loan repayments, the replacement of letters of credit, which are issued to certain aircraft lessors in securing lease rental payments and future maintenance of aircraft, with cash deposits, debts to the Indian Oil Corporation, and for general corporate use.
Akasa Air has received its no-objection certificate from India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation, has hired more veterans from defunct carrier Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int’l), and is now in talks with Boeing (BOE, Chicago O’Hare) to acquire up to one hundred B737 MAX aircraft, local media reported.
The start-up low-cost carrier, backed by billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has also approached the Indian government to recertify the grounded aircraft type, Business Standard reported.
Boeing conducted its first test flight to recertify the MAX in China on August 11, but it remains grounded in many countries, including India, after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019 claimed 346 lives.
“The company in its discussions with regulators has said it has made significant progress in negotiations with Boeing to acquire the 737 MAX and intends to start operations by early 2022. For that purpose, the government needs to recertify the aircraft,” a source told the newspaper.
Each MAX has a list price of around USD100 million, but they are often…
Aditya Ghosh, president of IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi Int’l) for ten years from August 2008 to July 2018 and known during that period as one of India’s most successful airline executives, will join a project to launch a new ultra-low-cost carrier with up to 70 aircraft under the moniker Akasa Air, multiple sources have told The Economic Times.
He will be working with billionaire Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and former Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int’l) chief executive Vinay Dube to establish the airline, using the business model of Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int’l) as inspiration, the sources said.
Ghosh was initially general counsel for IndiGo owner InterGlobe Enterprises for four years before becoming IndiGo’s president, growing the neophyte carrier into the country’s biggest airline by market share. Since leaving, he has been a board member at a string of companies, none of them in aviation, and completed an advanced management programme at Harvard Business School.
However, one of the sources said that Ghosh will own a stake of less…
SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int’l) and Go First (G8, Mumbai Int’l) have been granted state aid of INR1.2 billion rupees (USD17.1 million) and INR256.5 million (USD3.4 million) respectively, under the Indian government’s Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) that provides government-guaranteed loans to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was confirmed on July 28, 2021, by newly-appointed Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Vijay Kumar Singh, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the Council of States or Upper House of the Indian Parliament, reported the Navbharat Times, one of the largest circulated Hindi newspapers in India.
“As per the information received from the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company, until July 16, (2021), a guarantee assistance of INR3.49 billion (USD46.9 million) (under the ECLGS scheme) has been provided to borrowers belonging to the aviation sector,” he said.
He said the two airlines had borrowed funds under two different sections of the scheme: GoFirst had borrowed funds under ECLGS 2.0, which allows airlines with debts of between…
Five years after it retired all of its A320-200s, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s flyCAA (BU, Kinshasa N’Djili) took delivery of a new unit of the type on July 2, 2021. 9S-ABM (msn 3900), a 12.2-year-old aircraft that was previously operated by GoAir. It was ferried to Kinshasa N’Djili directly from Toulouse Francazal but has yet to be deployed into revenue service. The airline did not respond to ch-aviation’s query about its plans for the A320 going forward.
According to the ch-aviation fleets history module, flyCAA used to operate a total of five A320-200s between 2010 and 2016. The last of the five, 9Q-CPB (msn 279), was retired on April 30, 2016. The carrier’s current fleet does not include any narrowbody aircraft – it operates two ATR72-500s, one ATR72-500(F), and one A330-200. Both the A330 and the ATR freighter variant were added to the carrier’s fleet earlier this year.
State-owned Congo Airways (8Z, Kinshasa N’Djili) operates two A320-200s (besides two DHC-8-Q400s), the ch-aviation…
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