Kingfisher Airlines' plans to raise $400 million are on track and private equity players have showed keen interest in investing in the airline, its chairman Vijay Mallya said on Friday after the annual general meeting in Bangalore.
"I have confirmed that we are continuing to discuss with certain private equity investors who are showing increasing amount of interest in this investment opportunity," Mallya said.
He did not talk about the time-frame for the initiative and the extent of equity stake that the airline would dilute by the measure, but added: "There is no reason why private equity investors who had expressed interest when oil (crude prices) was at $100 a barrel, shouldn't be more interested when oil is $36 a barrel."
Asked if the airline is expected to break-even in the next fiscal (2009-10), Mallya said: "We are certainly optimistic."
If all goes well in the next five days (till December end), the airlines should break-even (operationally) in the current month itself when it's revenue (passenger, cargo and ancillary revenues put together) is expected to be close to Rs 500 crore (in December alone).
To a question, Mallya said that Kingfisher and Jet Airways are not looking at picking up stake in each other's company, saying there was no need to go that far.
Asked if United Breweries would buy UK-based Cobra Beer which has announced its decision to exit beer business, he said: "We will study the information memorandum and then decide."
Mallya said Kingfisher would launch Mumbai-London flight on January 5, Mumbai-Hong Kong on January 12 and Mumbai-Singapore on January 16 next year.
The airline is also planning Bangalore-Colombo, Bangalore-Male and Bangalore-Dubai flights. It has also applied for starting Bangalore-Singapore and Bangalore-Bangkok flights, he added.
