Jet Airways to raise $800 million over the next 5-6 months

Mumbai: India's leading private carrier, Jet Airways Ltd, expects to launch its rights issue sometime over the next couple of months. The $400 million rights issue was put on hold last year.

Jet, which on Monday reported a net loss of Rs911 million ($23 million) in the Oct-Dec quarter, as against a profit of Rs400 million a year ago, also said it would raise a further $400 million from a share placement with institutional investors.

The airline has been planning to raise a total of $800 million from the markets since last year. Plans were put on hold because of a global credit crunch.

The placement will include a dilution of the founder's 80% stake, which as per SEBI rules has to be brought down to a level less than 75% by March, senior airline officials said.

Meanwhile, Jet officials have expressed confidence that they could launch the rights issue in two weeks time and close it 90 days later. They said that the airline is keen that the money from the issue should come in now as the airline was investing in international operations. They also expressed confidence about the success of the issue.

They also said that the airline was confident of raising the full $800 million over the next five to six months.