Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Kingfisher's latest 'white knight'

Mumbai: Kingfisher Airlines is not only making headlines, it is also the centre of attraction for rumour-mongers.
In the market buzz, it was first the Tata Group which was interested in taking stake in Vijay Mallya's troubled airline. Then it was supposed to be Reliance Industries, which recently played white knight to the Oberois of East India Hotels. The rumours died down after RIL issued denials.
Yet, even before RIL's denial, speculation started over Subrata Roy-owned Sahara Airlines using Kingfisher as a platform for re-entry into aviation. Sahara, which has denied its plan to get into Kingfisher, had earlier exited the airline business after selling out to Jet. Last month, Sahara bought 42.5 per cent stake in Mallya's Force India F1 moto racing team, Roy investing $100 million. The speculation regarding Sahara investing in Kingfisher gained ground following Mallya's visit to Lucknow over the weekend.
The latest to "join" the race is Malvinder Singh, promoter of financial services firm, Religare, and healthcare company Fortis. Speculation is rife that Singh is likely to invest in Kingfisher. Religare, owned by Malvinder and his brother Shivinder, already runs an aviation arm, Religare Voyages, a chartered flight operator. Recently, the civil aviation ministry issued a no-objection certificate to Religare Voyages and the company is likely to start operations soon.
When asked by Business Standard, Malvinder denied any such plans, but the rumours refuse to die down.
22/11/11 Raghu Balakrishnan & Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
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