Billionaire Hinduja brothers weigh bid for Jet Airways

India’s Hinduja Group said yesterday it was considering a bid for debt-laden Jet Airways Ltd, boosting shares in the grounded airline by 15% for their best day since January. India’s Economic Times newspaper said  here  earlier the family-run Hinduja Group would start the process of bidding this week.

The group is led by billionaire brothers Gopichand and Srichand Hinduja, who were named Britain’s wealthiest people for a third time in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List. Their interests range from banking and oil and gas to power. Media reports said the group had looked at a possible stake in Air India when the staterun airline came up for privatisation, but a deal failed to materialize. The Hindujas also tied up with German airline Lufthansa’s air cargo services business in the 1990s, before ending the agreement in 2000.

“The markets would like to see a serious player get into Jet at this juncture,” Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal Securities, said.

“The Hindujas have the financial strength to support Jet.” The Mumbai-based Hinduja Group is in talks with Jet founder Naresh Goyal and investor Etihad, as well as bankers led by SBI Capital Markets which is leading the search for potential investors, the Economic Times said, citing sources. SBI Capital Markets declined to comment, while Etihad did not respond to a Reuters query.