With founders quarreling in board room, IndiGo can't fly high in the sky


This is the time for IndiGo to be rewarding shareholders by consolidating its leadership position and filling the gap left by Jet


Company News: The co-founders of India’s No 1 airline are engaged in a bitter feud. Their quarrel couldn’t have come at a worse time for minority shareholders of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, the company that owns IndiGo.

Investors were just starting to enjoy the fruits of a frenetic expansion that saw the no-frills carrier, Asia’s largest, double its capacity in the three years through March. Full-cost rival Jet Airways India Ltd tried to keep up, until it was forced to ground its last plane in April under a truckload of debt. Meanwhile, InterGlobe has put together a cash war chest — net of debt — of nearly $2 billion.


This is the time for IndiGo to be rewarding shareholders by consolidating its leadership position and filling the gap left by Jet, especially on overseas routes. Instead, the founders are busy picking fights.

Rakesh Gangwal, a former CEO of US Airways Group Inc, has dashed off a letter to the Indian stock-market regulator alleging corporate-governance lapses. He says partner Rahul Bhatia, who owns 1 percentage point more than US-based Gangwal’s 37 per cent stake, is dragging IndiGo into transactions with his other businesses, which are mostly housed under InterGlobe Enterprises Ltd (IGE Group), without adequate auditing. Read More




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