Go Airlines has filed a Draft Red herring Prospectus with capital markets regulator SEBI to launch an IPO (initial public offering) worth Rs 3,600 crore. The Wadia group-owned airline company in consultation with its lead managers will issue shares through a preferential issue or any other method to raise up to Rs 1,500 crore. Ahead of Go Airlines IPO, India’s ultra-low-cost airline has rebranded itself as ‘Go First’. The company has planned to utilise the net proceeds from issue towards prepayment or scheduled repayment of all or a portion of certain outstanding borrowings availed by the company worth Rs 2,015.8 crore. While Rs 279.26 crore will be used for the replacement of letters of credit which are used to certain aircraft lessors towards securing lease rental payments and future maintenance of aircraft with a cash deposit. The company will also use it towards repayment of dues to Indian Oil Corporation Limited, in part or full, for fuel supplied to the company, and general corporate purposes.
Key things to know about Go Airline IPO
– The global coordinators and book running lead managers to the issue are ICICI Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt Ltd, and Morgan Stanley India Company Pvt Ltd. The registrar to the issue is Link Intime India Private Ltd. Upon listing, Go Airline will join the likes of Interglobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo) and Spicejet Ltd.
– Khaitan & Co is the legal counsel to the company as to Indian law while AZB & Partners is the legal counsel to the GCBRLMs as to Indian law. Clifford Chance Pte Ltd. is the International Legal Counsel to the GCBRLMs.
– According to the CAPA report, Go Airlines is one of the fastest-growing airlines in India, with an increase in domestic market share from 8.8% in fiscal 2018 to 10.8% in the fiscal 2020.
– GoAir had a high aircraft utilization during fiscal 2020, with average utilization of 12.9 hours per day and a load factor of 88.9%.
– The company has said that it has not raised any bridge loans from any bank or financial institution as on the date of this Draft Red Herring Prospectus, which are required to be repaid from the pet proceeds.
– As on January 31, 2020, GoAir covered a network of 28 domestic and 9 international destinations. The airline’s network is spread across major cities in India and abroad. Indian cities include Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Bagdogra, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Kannur, Kochi, Kolkata, Leh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Ranchi, Srinagar, Varanasi, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Colombo, Dubai, Dammam, Kuwait, Male, Muscat and Phuket.
– For the nine months ended December 2020, Go Air reported a profit of Rs 470.6 crore. While it posted a profit of Rs 1,270.7 crore in the financial year 2019-20.
– Go Air said that the reduction of its overall debt will reduce interest costs and improve our lease rate factors. “We expect our financial position to be improved by this reduction in debt coupled with our cost management and reduction measure and the anticipated growth in our business,” it said.
