KAL Airways Pvt Ltd, which owns a majority stake in the low-cost airline SpiceJet, has repaid a Rs 500-odd crore debt it raised to fund the acquisition. The company has redeemed its short-term non-convertible debentures privately placed with a group of nine domestic financial institutions.

Following the redemption, the credit rating agency CARE announced that it “has withdrawn, with immediate effect, the CARE A1+ Structured Obligation rating assigned to the short-term NCD issue of KAL Airways Pvt Ltd aggregating Rs 750 crore.”

Investors

According to people in the know, the investors (including Bajaj Finance and Kotak Finance who had major exposure in the issue) “have confirmed the redemption.”

Though it is not clear how KAL Airways managed to redeem the NCDs, industry sources, pointing to stock exchange notifications, note that KAL Airways has pledged 9.07 crore shares out of the 15.65 crore shares it holds in SpiceJet, which represents 58 per cent of its holdings in the company. KAL holds 38.61 per cent stake in SpiceJet.

However, till March 31, only 2.9 crore shares were pledged. And the remaining 6.17 crore shares were pledged between April and June, sources point out.

Sun TV

Sun TV has also made a similar disclosure to stock exchanges.

Till June 23, Mr Kalanithi Maran, Chairman and Managing Director, Sun TV Network Ltd, has pledged 4.93 crore shares, representing 16.26 per cent of his holdings. Mr Maran holds 30.34 crore shares in Sun TV.

In another development, SpiceJet announced to the stock exchanges on July 6 that Mr R. Neelakantan, Vice-President – Finance, has been elevated to the post of the Chief Financial Officer of the company with immediate effect.

Ms Seema Chandra has since resigned as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company, the company has announced to the exchanges.

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