Who is Kingfisher's latest 'white knight'?

Kingfisher Airlines is not only making headlines, it is also the centre of attraction for rumour-mongers.

In the market buzz, it was first the Tata Group which was interested in taking stake in Vijay Mallya's troubled airline.

Then it was supposed to be Reliance Industries, which recently played white knight to the Oberois of East India Hotels. The rumours died down after RIL issued denials.

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Yet, even before RIL's denial, speculation started over Subrata Roy-owned Sahara Airlines using Kingfisher as a platform for re-entry into aviation.

Sahara, which has denied its plan to get into Kingfisher, had earlier exited the airline business after selling out to Jet.

Last month, Sahara bought 42.5 per cent stake in Mallya's Force India F1 moto racing team, Roy investing $100 million.

The speculation regarding Sahara investing in Kingfisher gained ground following Mallya's visit to Lucknow over the weekend.

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The latest to 'join' the race is Malvinder Singh, promoter of financial services firm, Religare, and healthcare company Fortis.

Speculation is rife that Singh is likely to invest in Kingfisher.

Religare, owned by Malvinder and his brother Shivinder, already runs an aviation arm, Religare Voyages, a chartered flight operator.

Recently, the civil aviation ministry issued a no-objection certificate to Religare Voyages and the company is likely to start operations soon.

Asked by Business Standard, Malvinder denied any such plans, but the rumours refuse to die down.

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Malvinder and his brother had raised Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 14-billion) of debt from global banking major Standard Chartered.

The brothers had mortgaged seven properties in Mumbai and Delhi, with a total space of 1.3 million square foot, to raise the funds.

Last week, quoting Mallya, the Financial Times had reported that the former was finalising a separate $250-mn equity injection from a wealthy Indian individual to recapitalise the loss-making airline.

According to the FT report, Mallya was close to signing a deal with 14 banks led by State Bank of India, to provide the airline with working capital of Rs 600 crore ($118 million). Mallya denied the news.

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Kapil Kaul of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation says, "Financial investors can look at investing in the airline (only) if they can expect some firm guarantees or fixed returns. Kingfisher will have to demonstrate a viable business plan with which it can turn around."

The airline reported a net loss of Rs 469 crore (Rs 4.69 billion) in the September quarter.

To balance its high debt of Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion) with equity, it is going ahead with plans to raise up to Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) by the end of 2011-12, via a rights issue. 

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It is also in talks with SBI-led consortium to secure working capital of Rs 700-800 crore (Rs 7-8 billion).

The airline has cut its flight schedule, withdrawing from less profitable routes and cancelling 50-55 flights a day.

It has said it was reconfiguring and would return to nromalcy over the next three-odd months.

According to data last week from the directorate-general of civil aviation, Kingfisher lost its number two position to IndiGo.

IndiGo had a market share of 19.6 per cent in the domestic market in October and Kingfisher's share fell to 16.7 per cent.