Ajay Singh Raises Bid for GoFirst Acquisition: SpiceJet and Busy Bee Bids Hiked by ₹100-150 Crore

Managing Director (MD) and Chairman Ajay Singh’s consortium is increasing its bid to purchase GoFirst airline. According to Reuters, Busy Bee Airlines is also included in Ajay Singh’s consortium.

The bid amount has been increased to Rs. 100-150 crores

The consortium has now raised its bid amount to Rs. 100-150 crores to purchase GoFirst airline. Consequently, the bid for the consortium has increased from Rs. 1,700 to 1,750 crores.

SpiceJet-Busy Bee had bid Rs. 1,600 crores

Last month in February, SpiceJet and Busy Bee Airways had placed a bid of Rs. 1,600 crores for the acquisition of GoFirst.

Sharjah-based Sky Van also placed a bid

Apart from SpiceJet and Busy Bee, Sharjah-based Sky Van also placed a bid. These financial bids are part of the GoFirst banker’s process. GoFirst applied for bankruptcy in the past year.

SpiceJet stated that Ajay Singh expressed his interest

SpiceJet stated that Ajay Singh had expressed interest in increasing his stake. If the deal goes through, SpiceJet will assist the new airline in its operations. It will provide essential staff, services, and industry expertise.

Bidders were urged to increase offers: Banker

“Both offers fell short of Creditors Committee’s (CoC) expectations and significant changes are expected in them,” said a banker from one of the banks with exposure to GoFirst. Therefore, all bidders were urged to increase their offers.

Bankers mentioned that CoC resolution professionals are discussing with Sky Van. Ajay Singh and Busy Bee’s joint bid will be discussed in the upcoming CoC meeting scheduled to be held early next week.

Investors granted Rs. 6,521 crores to the airline

Investors have granted Rs. 6,521 crores to GoFirst. According to Equity Ratings and Research, the Central Bank of India had the highest exposure with Rs. 1,987 crores. This was followed by Bank of Baroda with Rs. 1,430 crores, Deutsche Bank with Rs. 1,320 crores, and IDBI Bank with Rs. 58 crores remaining.

Go First Airlines’ flights to be suspended from May 3

Go First Airlines has provided information since May 2 that all its flights for May 3, 4, and 5 have been canceled. Therefore, the date to suspend Go First flights is continuously being extended.

Work had to be stopped due to engine supply shortage

The airline claims that due to the unavailability of engine supply, they had to stop their operations. American aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney (PW) was supposed to supply engines to Go First, but it couldn’t do so in a timely manner. As a result, Go First had to ground more than half of its fleet. Due to this, the company incurred significant losses. CEO Koushik Khona claimed that due to engine failures, the company suffered a loss of 1.1 billion dollars, or about Rs. 8.9 thousand crores, in the last three years.

The first flight was operated in 2005 from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.

GoFirst is a budget airline of the Wadia Group. According to the company’s website, Go First was launched on April 29, 2004. The first flight operation from Mumbai to Ahmedabad was conducted in November 2005. The airline fleet consists of 59 aircraft.

Of these, 54 aircraft are A320 NEO and 5 aircraft are A320 CEO. Go First operates its flights to 35 destinations. It includes 27 domestic and 8 international destinations. In 2021, the airline changed its brand name from GoAir to GoFirst.