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Eight bidders queue up for stake in Air Sahara
By agencies
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Tuesday, 01 November 2005, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: About eight bidders are in the race to pick up stake in the troubled Indian air carrier Air Sahara, which has kept "all options open," including selling equity or strategic partnership, to fund its expansion plans.
Among the bidders are Singapore's Temasek Holdings, which controls major stake in the Changi Airport, Blackstone Capital Partners and the Carlyle Group, sources said.
Liquor baron and owner of Kingfisher Airline Vijay Mallya has evinced keen interest in picking a stake in Air Sahara, while Jet Airways has said it was not, though earlier reports had suggested that it was holding negotiations on the matter.
While some of the interested parties had put in their bids for the $100 million private placement, others were holding talks with Air Sahara for picking a stake.
Air Sahara had last month announced that its valuation and transaction advisor, Ernst & Young, had estimated the company's enterprise value between $750 million to $1 billion. The airline wants to download ten percent of its equity, which amounts to almost 100 million.
The company had said in a recent statement "as on date all options on the future funding and strategic alliance are open. We are also looking for merger/acquisition opportunity with some other airlines as well."
Maintaining that no deal had been finalized yet, the airline said it was "in the process of finding a suitable private equity investor and/or a strategic partner to fund the airline's expansion program." "We would like to further reiterate that we will find and finalize on any option that is best suited for the current and future interests of Air Sahara," it had said.