Jet Airways To Come Out With $400 M Rights By Mid-Oct

Mumbai: The proposed $400 million rights issue Jet Airways will hit the capital market by mid-October. Naresh Goyal-promoted private airline, which recently acquired Air Sahara (now JetLite) for Rs 1,450 crore, is currently in the process of filing a prospectus with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Jet Airways has roped in HSBC and SSKI as merchant bankers to the rights issue, which will be used for acquisition of aircraft. Jet Airways is acquiring 25 wide-bodied aircraft to fuel its international operations. Goyal holds 80 per cent share in Jet Airways, while the remaining stake is with the public. Meanwhile, Jet Airways started its flight connecting India and the US, with daily flights from Mumbai to Newark via its hub in Brussels.

With this, Jet Airways becomes the first private sector carrier in the country to fly this route. National carrier Air-India launched its non-stop Mumbai-New York flights on August 1. Jet has deployed brand-new Boeing B777-300 ER aircraft, which will carry 312 passengers in a three-class configuration. For the operations of Boeing B777-300 ER aircraft, Jet has signed up with Lufthansa Technik for maintenance support and assignment of qualified engineers. Since inception, in May 1993, until the end of June 2007, Jet has flown over 74 million passengers. Jet currently operates a fleet of 64 aircraft, with four Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 48 Boeing 737, four Airbus A330 and eight ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft.