Bombay Stock Exchange: India’s Kingfisher receives share suspension blow
The grounded carrier, once India’s second-largest airline by passenger market share, never turned a profit since its launch in 2005, and owners of its planes have taken them back.
The decision to suspend trading in shares of Kingfisher Airlines from December 1 is due to the company’s failure to declare its financial results for two successive financial quarters in March and in June.
The exchanges will also suspend trading in the shares of Mallya Group Company UB Engineering Limited from December 1, the bourses said.
“Trading in securities of the companies would be suspended with effect from December 1, 2014 and the suspension will continue till such time the company complies (with financial reporting requirements),” said the Bombay Stock Exchange in a website notice.
The National Stock Exchange made a similar announcement.
The full-service Kingfisher, which used to boast it, treated flyers as ‘guests’, never returned to the skies after pilots went on strike in 2012 over unpaid wages. While India’s passenger aviation market is one of world’s fastest-growing, analysts say Kingfisher was a casualty of cutthroat fare wars in the congested sector where most carriers are losing money.
The move by the stock exchanges comes two months after the United Bank of India declared Mallya a “willful defaulter” over his indebted airline – a term the central bank defines as someone failing to pay debts even when they have the capacity.
Mallya made his fortune through an inherited liquor business – branching out with the launch of Kingfisher Airlines, named after his company’s popular beer that is a household name in India. Kingfisher shares fell more than 2.5% on Friday on the Bombay Stock Exchange to INR1.94, down from a peak price in December 2007 of INR335.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2014.
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My deepest sympathies to the investors who purchased "KINGFISHER AIRLINES" shares @ Rs 335/share in 2007 which are today in 2014 worth ?! .This is the danger of "SHARE INVESTMENTS & SPECULATION" and hence only gamblers and adrenalin junkies dabble individually in the "STOCK MARKET" all over the World including India.Stick to "MUTUAL FUNDS" if a beginner or a novice in the "STOCK MARKET". Becoming a "CROREPATI" by "DAY-TRADING" or "STOCK INVESTMENT" is one of the riskiest professions and hence even in 2014 only 1 % of the Indian population invests individually in the "STOCK MARKET".