16-May-07, BANGALORE (XFN-ASIA) - Air Deccan, India´s largest budget airline, plans to raise USD100 million by selling up to a 26% stake to a professional investor, managing director GR Gopinath said.
The company has appointed investment bank Edelweiss Capital to evaluate at least three potential private investors, Gopinath told Agence France-Presse in Bangalore, ruling out a strategic sale to billionaire brewer Vijay Mallya´s Kingfisher Airlines.
"We are taking time to find out who we should go to bed with," Gopinath said, adding that a final decision that could involve a sale to more than one player will be made in two weeks to a month.
The three-and-a-half-year-old company may sell between 15 pct and 26 pct of its equity, he said, and use the 75-100 mln usd proceeds to fund its expansion.
Mallya, who owns the world´s third-largest distiller in UB Group, said earlier this month that his upmarket Kingfisher Airlines is interested in buying Air Deccan.
Gopinath, who spurned the overture saying a marriage between the two airlines did not make business or cultural sense, again ruled out a sale to Kingfisher.
