Tata Sons proposes to increase stake in AirAsia India

Industrial conglomerate Tata Sons on Monday proposed to increase its stake in AirAsia India to 49 percent.

According to Tata Sons, it plans to increase equity stake in AirAsia India to 49 percent from its existing stake of 41.06 percent.

"Tata Sons has entered into an agreement with AirAsia (India) ("company"), Telestra Tradeplace and two of the directors of the company, being S.Ramadorai (chairman) and R. Venkataramanan," the industrial conglomerate said in a statement.

"Under (the agreement) which Tata Sons proposes to increase its stake in the company to 49 percent from its existing stake of 41.06 percent, by acquiring 7.94 percent equity stake from Telestra."

The statement elaborated that Ramadorai and Venkataramanan, in their individual capacity, propose to acquire 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent shareholding respectively of Telestra's remaining two percent equity stake in the company.

"S.Ramadorai and R.Venkataramanan, in their individual capacity, propose to acquire 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent shareholding respectively of Telestra's remaining 2 percent equity stake in the company," the statement said.

"AirAsia Investment will continue to hold its 49 percent stake in the company."

Tata Sons disclosed that it entered into the agreement on March 14, 2016, and expects the transaction to be completed in April 2016, subject to the completion of all the relevant corporate approvals and processes.

Initially, AirAsia Investment owned a 49 percent stake in the budget airline, followed by 30 percent by Tata Sons and the rest 21 percent was held with Telestra Tradeplaces.

Last year, Tata Sons bought 11 percent of Telestra's stake, taking its total holding in the low cost carrier (LCC) to 41 percent.

Since the start of operations on June 12, 2014, the Indo-Malaysian airline has acquired a fleet of six aircraft and carried over 1.8 million passengers.

Currently, it operates flight services on 12 routes.

In the most recent quarter of its operation -- October-December 2015 -- the LCC logged a 134 percent growth in passenger traffic. It flew over half a million passengers, and operated 3,376 flights as compared to 1,444 flights in the same period of 2014.

Recent data furnished by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) showed that the budget airline's passenger load factor during February stood at 85.5 percent. It had a market share of 2.2 percent in the month under review.