Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal has transferred another tranche of stake from his privately held overseas entity to his own name in the country’s second-largest carrier. Goyal transferred 36.8 per cent stake held by offshore entity Tail Winds Ltd to his own name through a stock market transaction worth Rs 1,670 crore ($296 million) on Thursday.
This follows a similar transaction few days ago where he had transferred 29 per cent stake to his own name in a $257 million deal.
With this, Goyal’s direct personal holding in the company has touched around 66 per cent. As of March 31, 2013, he held 79.9 per cent stake in the airlines through Tail Winds, of the 80 per cent total promoter holding.
The holding through an overseas entity is said to be a stumbling block to get regulatory clearances for Jet Airways’ deal with Etihad. Etihad had announced a deal to acquire 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways through a preferential allotment in the first such inbound acquisition by a foreign carrier after India opened its skies to foreign investors. Etihad is to buy the shares of Jet Airways at Rs 754.74 a piece.
Regulatory clearances for the deal hinges on interpretation of the authorities of the holding as FDI of only up to 49 per cent is allowed in the aviation business.
Tail Winds has also offered to sell a part of its remaining shares in an offer for sale which would further bring down the total foreign holding of the company. The total foreign stakeholding after preferential allotment to Etihad would come to around 30 per cent, as per VCCircle estimates.
This would help Jet Airways meet the FDI norms while also meeting the minimum public holding norms for a listed company.
