FII holdings in Kingfisher dips sharply

Overseas investors are fleeing Kingfisher Airlines as their total holdings in the cash-strapped airline came down to just 0.5 per cent in the 2011 December quarter from over two per cent in the previous three months, according to available data with bourses.

An analysis of shareholding patterns of three-listed airlines showed that foreign institutional investors have reduced their stakes in Kingfisher and SpiceJet while hiking their holdings in Jet Airways in three months ended December 2011.

FIIs have been trimming their holdings over the past few quarters in Kingfisher Airlines, which is now grappling with severe cash crunch amid large scale flight cancellations.

According to data available with the stock exchanges, FII holdings in the Vijay Mallya-led airline has come down to 0.5 per cent at the end of December quarter 2011 from 2.11 per cent in the preceding three months.

Their stake stood at 3.02 per cent in June 2011 quarter.

Similar trends were also seen in rival carrier SpiceJet where the holdings of foreign investors slumped to 3.81 per cent in December quarter from 6.17 per cent in the July-September period.

However, Jet Airways -- the country's largest carrier in terms of passenger carriage -- witnessed an increase in FII stake at 5.42 per cent, compared to 4.67 per cent in the three months to September.

"Foreign investors are reducing their exposure in Kingfisher Airlines because of the obvious reasons (debt crisis", Destimoney Securities MD and CEO, Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

Besides, SpiceJet saw a huge fall in its FII holding from 6.17 per cent in the July-September quarter to 3.81 per cent in the three months through December.

However, Jet Airways, the country's largest carrier in terms of passenger carriage, witnessed an increase in FII stake at 5.42 per cent, compared to 4.67

per cent in the three months to September.

Market analysts believe that steep depreciation of the Indian rupee coupled with consistently high crude oil prices has led to all the three airline firms posting losses for the third quarter of the current fiscal.

All the three airlines were deep in the red during the October-December quarter. Kingfisher Airlines, which is  yet to turn profitable since its inception in 2005, saw its net loss widen to Rs 444.26 crore (Rs 4.44 billion) from Rs 253.69 crore (Rs 2.53 billion).

During the same period, SpiceJet recorded a net loss of Rs 39.26 crore (Rs 392.6 million) where it had a net profit of Rs 94.44 crore (Rs 944.4 million) in the year-ago period.

For the 2011 December quarter, Jet Airways posted a net loss of Rs 101.22 crore (Rs 1.01 billion) whereas the entity had a net profit of Rs 118.23 crore (Rs 1.18 billion) in the same period a year ago.

Shares of the three carriers are currently trading well below their 52-week high levels.

The scrips of all the three air carriers were trading with losses in a weak market today.

Kingfisher Airlines was down 2.47 per cent, SpiceJet by 9 per cent and Jet Airways with loss of over 6 per cent in afternoon trade.

Kingfisher Airlines is trading at Rs 24 level, down from its one-year high level of Rs 49.25 scaled on April 7, 2011 and SpiceJet is near Rs 21 level, as against a high of Rs 47.20 on April 20, 2011.

Jet Airways has come down to Rs 283 level, from as high as Rs 517.5 a year ago on 19 July last year.

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