Kingfisher Airlines, which recently completed one year of its operations, is looking to raise around $80 million in debt to fund its expansion plans.
This is because plans to raise private equity are getting delayed and the much talked about public offer is also not likely to take place this year.
“The company was looking at raising upto $150 million through the private equity route which is kind of delayed. This has prompted us to look towards debt as an immediate alternative,” said a company official.
He further added that the IPO in all probability will not happen during 2006.
According to industry sources, Kingfisher is going in for this $80 million debt to part-fund its $270 million order for aircraft. Kingfisher Airlines has placed an order for 15 additional ATR 72-500 aircraft in a deal valued at $270 million.
Kingfisher has also placed orders for five Airbus A380s, five A350s and five A330s. The deliveries of A330s are expected to begin in 2007 while the A380s and A350s arrive in 2010 and 2012 respectively.
On a more immediate basis in 2006, the company is taking on board two more ATRs, besides four more Airbus aircraft to add to its present fleet of 11 Airbus and four ATRs.
According to the company, it has 13 operational aircraft connecting 15 cities in India through 72 flights a day. The company also claims that its average load factor is around 70 per cent.
Kingfisher Airlines fleet comprises a mix of leasing and buying from Debis Air, Bab****, Singapore Air Leasing and Airbus.
The company is also in touch with European Credit Agency for soft loans to fund acquisition of aircraft.
The UB group had divested its holding in Bayer LifeSciece for Rs 36 crore to part-finance the Rs 60 crore seed capital required for Kingfisher Airlines.
The rest (Rs 24 crore) was funded from internal accruals.