MUMBAI: US billionaire Wilbur Ross, who worked on the bankruptcies of Continental Airlines and Trans World Airlines in the 1990s, will invest in SpiceJet after record fuel costs deepened the Indian carrier's losses.
WL Ross & Co will buy $80 million of foreign currency convertible bonds held by Istithmar PJSC and Goldman Sachs Group, Kishore Gupta, a director of the New Delhi-based airline, said in a phone interview.
The US financier will join SpiceJet's board, according to a statement by India's second largest budget airline.
Ross may be betting on winning more passengers in the world's second-fastest growing major aviation market as mergers reduce competition.
"This investment reflects the fact that there is still belief in the long-term potential of Indian aviation,'' said Binit Somaia, a director for the Indian subcontinent at the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation." There is interest from investors when assets are available at good valuations.''
Ross, whose company has about $7.9 billion of assets under management, made his fortune taking over bankrupt steel, coal and textile companies.
A native of Weehawken, New Jersey, Ross also worked as an airline analyst at Faulkner, Dawkins & Sullivan Securities in New York. The transaction is Ross's second investment in India. In February 2007, Ross acquired OCM India a worsted suiting maker, for about $37 million, according to the statement.
source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Wilbur_Ross_the_boss_of_bankruptcy/articleshow/3239607.cms
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