We Continue to Believe in Indian Aviation Story: S.L. Narayanan

New Delhi: Kalanithi Maran-controlled SpiceJet expanded its authorized share capital on Thursday, enabling the loss-making airline to raise more funds. The airline, which has been looking for an investor, has also decided to allot as many as 189.1 million warrants convertible into an equivalent number of equity shares, in various tranches, to the promoters of the company and Sun Group. The Maran family has been pumping funds into the airline in small instalments every fiscal according to rules prescribed by the market regulator. While SpiceJet overtook bigger rival Jet Airways (India) Ltd to become the number two airline last week, the airline is still finding it difficult to draw investors. S.L. Narayanan, group chief financial officer at Sun Group, explains the road ahead for SpiceJet. Edited excerpts:


Why are the promoters still pumping money into SpiceJet?

We continue to believe in the Indian aviation story and we think SpiceJet has an important place in it. Despite reduction in capacity in the most recent quarter ended 30 June, we have maintained our gross revenue, which is a big achievement in itself. And going by our July 2014 load factor data and the strong market share gains we recorded, there is indeed an interesting story that needs to be told. The total amount invested by the promoters is about Rs.1,300 crore split into approximately Rs.750 crore paid to the exiting shareholders in 2010 and another Rs.550 crore invested as fresh equity post October 2010 till date.
Read news in full 25/08/14 PR Sanjai/Mint/Aviation Pros.com