Former Mumbai Airport executive Sanjiv Taneja to be new SpiceJet CFO

Joins the airline at a time when the company has been hit hard by ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has by now grounded several carriers across the world

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet has selected former Essar Ports executive Sanjiv Taneja as its chief financial officer.

Industry sources said the airline has finalised Taneja and that he is likely to join the company by the end of this month.

Taneja didn’t respond to a query about his appointment. He succeeds Kiran Koteshwar who quit the company in September to become CFO of Lagos-based airline Green Africa.

Before Essar Ports, where Taneja served as CFO, he held the position of CFO for four years at Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) which operates India’s second busiest airport of Mumbai.

Taneja will join SpiceJet at a time when the company has been hit hard by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has by now grounded multiple across the world.

SpiceJet’s negative net worth has increased to Rs 1,580 crore at March-end from Rs 847 crore at September-end. As on 31 March, the airline’s consolidated cash and bank balance have more than halved in six months to a mere Rs 42 crore, and its lease liabilities have ballooned.

Taneja has over 26 years of intense experience in senior strategic assignments with reputed groups in various sectors being Real Estate, Manufacturing, Packaging, Securities and Pharmaceuticals in various geographical areas such as GCC, Middle East, South East Asia, Europe & India.

His Linkedin profile says he was responsible for “strategic turnaround and expansion at Damac“as well as “capital structuring and fund-raising for banks." It was under his tenure that Damac became the first Dubai real estate firm to list itself on the London Stock Exchange in 2013.

Before Damac, Taneja was CEO and CFO at Chennai-based infrastructure company Marg.