Jet Sahara India Mega Deal

     The biggest aviation deal in India history just took place as Jet Airways and Air Sahara signed a formal agreement on January 18 for Jet to eventually acquire Sahara and become the country's largest airline with a market share more than 50 percent.
     The deal, a strategic alliance between the two carriers initially, will finalize as a full-fledged merger.
     FlyingTypers learned that the Air Sahara brand will be retained and nurtured as a low-cost carrier while Jet Airways will focus on the premium, all-frills segment.
     Additionally, Jet's dream of flying to the United States will be realized as Air Sahara has been flying to Chicago as part of a code-share deal.
     Though none of the actors in the deal were ready to come out into the open about the financial intricacies, sources told FlyingTypers Sahara brings resources needed at Jet.
     Sahara is part of the Subroto Roy Group that is into banking, media (both print and visual), export-import and housing.
     Most of the liabilities of Air Sahara will be taken over by Jet.
     Word up is that workers at Air Sahara—and there are close to 5,000, will not lose their jobs.
     The Air Sahara deal strengthens Jet’s position even further as competition arrives in the form of Kingfisher Airlines and other players.
     Air Sahara has been looking for such an acquisition deal for quite some time now.
     Air Sahara began operations just months after Jet in 1993.
     The deal makes Jet the owners of around 200 aircraft by the end of 2006 and delivers about 300 to 400 pilots—a commodity not easily available in India—and 10,000 employees.
     The Jet Airways board meets tomorrow on January 19, and is expected to rubber stamp the agreement.
     Yesterday (June 16) was the wedding anniversary of Sahara boss, Subroto Roy (left).
     The signing of the deal was only a formality after liquor baron Vijay Mallya (of Kingfisher) pulled out.
     Air Sahara had appointed Ernst and Young as consultants who had valued the carrier at $750 million and $1 billion—a figure most analysts found exorbitant.
     The deal was first reported in the middle of 2005 and was the focus of intense speculation with Kingfisher's Vijay Mallya and Jet's Naresh Goyal (right) in the running.
     Goyal denied the deal every single time he was asked about it.
     But while Vijay Mallya made all the loud noises, Goyal has flown off with the Sahara cake.
(T Ghosh)