& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

India's biggest private airline upbeat ahead of IPO

AFP, Bombay
India's biggest private airline Jet Airways, which launches an IPO next week to raise up to 443 million dollars, said Friday it was confident of maintaining market share in the face of fierce competition.
Jet, which holds 45 percent of the domestic aviation market, is seeking to raise between 16.4 to 19.4 billion rupees (374 to 443 million dollars) through its share offering to be priced in a 950 rupee-to-1,125 per share price band.
"We're confident of not only maintaining market share but will look at improving yields in the coming year," Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal told a news conference.
"We expect growth of over 70 percent in seat capacity in the coming year," the London-based extravel agent said.
The initial public offering (IPO) in which Jet is offloading 20 percent of its equity or 17.2 million shares to retail and institutional investors kicks off next Friday.
The funds raised will be used for buying new aircraft and retiring debt.
The price will be decided February 28 by the book-building method and shares will list March 14 on Indian bourses.
Jet, which began flying in 1993, now holds a bigger market share than state-owned Indian Airlines which for decades held a monopoly stranglehold on domestic air travel. It has won repeated travel industry awards as India's best airline for inflight service and punctuality.
However, aviation analysts say competition is heating up for Jet with a clutch of new players, many offering cheap fares.
Rivals include Air Deccan, Air Sahara and another private player, Kingfisher Airlines, owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, due to take off in
May. Another airline, SpiceJet, is slated to take to the skies around the same time.
"Analysts say it (the IPO price band) is in line with valuations of other international airlines," Goyal said.
Market players said it might be a little aggressive but they still expected it to be oversubscribed as many investors have scored rich returns on IPOs during the past few years.
"Jet has been talking about increased growth in the coming year but one must understand competition will increase in coming months from local and international airlines," said a dealer with brokerage Dalal and Broacha.
Still aviation analysts say demand is set to soar amid growing affluence in Asia's fourth-largest economy where an increasing number of India's over one billion population are travelling by air rather than traditional rail.