"Jet Airways acquired Air Sahara"

On Jan 20, 2006 the biggest deal in the Indian civil aviation history was announced with Jet Airways taking over Air Sahara for nearly $500 million (about Rs. 2,300 crore) in an-all cash deal, executed on late Wednesday night.

Announcing the deal through a joint statement, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal and Sahara group Chairman and Managing Worker Subrata Roy said they were "pleased to announce the execution of a share purchase agreement for acquisition by Jet Airways India Limited of the entire capital of Sahara Airlines Limited subject to regulatory approvals.''

The Indian Civil Aviation Ministry gave approval in principle, but the deal was eventually called off over disagreements over price and the appointment of Jet chairman Naresh goyal to the Air Sahara board. Following the failure of the deal, the companies filed lawsuits seeking damages from each other

A second, eventually successful attempt was made on april 12, 2007 with Jet Airways agreeing to pay 1,450 crore rupees ($340 million). The deal gave Jet a combined domestic market share of about 32%.

On april 16th Jet Airways announced that Air Sahara will be renamed as JetLite. The takeover was officially completed on april 20th, when Jet Airways paid Rs. 400 crore.

The company is named as "JET LITE"....

"Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines" merger

On May 3 2007) The Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher was eyeing a controlling stake in Air Deccan, the boss of the budget airline, Capt G R Gopinath, responded by saying, "Mallya's from Venus, I'm from Mars."

Well, it would now appear that Venus and Mars can co-exist. UB Groups flamboyant Mallya, who's been on a takeover binge, made an offer that Gopinath couldn’t refuse. Mallya said he could come in as an investor in Air Deccan. Mallya's UB Holdings will board Deccan as controlling shareholder.

For Mallya, who came late to the party in the skies, the deal puts him in deadheat with Naresh Goyal for the airline industry’s numero uno position, with the Kingfisher-Deccan and Jet-Sahara combines staking out market shares of 31-34% each. Clearly, this is wedding season in aviation: Jet-Sahara, Air India-Indian Airlines and now this. Size matters in this cut-throat business and consolidation is the only way to stay afloat.

In their coming together, the two players are a study in contrast. Kingfisher is known to lavish its customers with the best of cuisine and comfort on board while Deccan would want its passengers to even pay for water. Deccan is a no-frills airline while Kingfisher would like to be known for luxury.

The board of Air Deccan issued in-principle approval for UB Holdings to invest up to 26% in the low-cost carrier. UB will spend Rs 550 crore for this stake, at a price of Rs 155 per share, roughly valuing Deccan, which has the second largest market share (after Jet but before Indian Airlines) at Rs 2,200 crore. (Jet paid Rs 1,450 crore for the whole of Sahara.)

In return, UB will get a preferential allotment of equity shares. Air Deccan has already received a pay order worth Rs 150 crore, with the rest of the money expected to come within the next four weeks. As per SEBI guidelines, UB will now make an open offer to the other investors (including the public and the non-promoters) to buy additional stake in Air Deccan.

The basic reason is looking to exploit all opportunities to save costs and reap the benefits of synergistic operations at the earliest. Addressing the media Vijay Mallya, Chairman, UB Group, said, "the Kingfisher-Air Deccan group will work closely to save on costs and, in fact, in our first full year of operations, we will save up to Rs. 300 crore on costs."