Nas Holding, which runs the low-fare aviation service Nasair from Saudi Arabia, is seeking strategic investments from Indian carriers, said a top executive.
JPMorgan Chase is advising the company on fund raising, which includes an initial public offering of Nas Holding, said Maria Angelika Hanne, chief commercial officer. Some investors are interested, she said.
“We have to create value for our investors, be it financial investors or strategic investors ,” said Hanne. “We are going with an established product, we plan to create a hub in India for collecting passengers to Saudi Arabia and we are working on being a network carrier.”
Nasair launched its service from Mumbai to Riyadh and Jeddah about a month ago. It runs four flights a week out of Mumbai as it aims to benefit from 1.8 millions who live in the oil-rich nation . It would expand services to other cities such as Kochi, Kozhikode and New Delhi. By 2011 Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Trivandrum would also be served with a focus on South India, since 30% of the Indian population in Saudi come from South.
But Indian aviation companies reeling under heavy losses may not be in a position to invest, but only business houses. “There might be some interest from business houses that have a good network in Saudi Arabia,’’ said Kapil Kaul, CEO, Centre for South East Asian Aviation, India and Middle East.
“We are excited about this market,’’ said Mehboob Peshimam, director, Indian subcontinent . “Our target is to achieve load factors of up to 75% on all these sectors.’’ The Saudi airline was launched in 2007 and is privately held by an aviation group, National Air Services. It is in talks with some local low fare carriers such as Kingfisher Red, SpiceJet and also IndiGo for an arrangement that would facilitate feeding business to each other.
Nasair has the permission to operate 75 flights or carry 20,000 passengers a week under the bilateral agreement between the countries. It is operating 39 flights.