The company is still transitioning its operations under the new brand and most of it's Airbus A320 fleet is not yet painted in the New Livery , but Re-branded "Go First" is going for the IPO early December.
It is being said, the Proceeds from share sale will be used for settling outstanding dues and debt, that is more than INR 3000 crore by now.
Go First applied for registration of the ‘Go First’ trademark on April 28, 2021.
Go First applied for the ‘Go First’ logo on May 12, 2021.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) observations on IPO processing status came on August 27 and were made public on August 30th.
'Go First' is expected to open its ₹3,600-crore IPO in early December , but there was a time when Sebi’s website showed that the IPO application submitted by Go First has been “kept in abeyance”.
As per existing norms, the market regulator is “obligated to keep issuance of observations in abeyance for a period of 30 days or 45 days or 90 days or more, as the case may be”.
Riding on the successful vaccination drive in india and reducing Covid-19 infections , Go First saw the travel demand bouncing back and the total revenue more than doubled to INR 1,202.90 crore in the first half of the financial year FY22, compared to the same period last year.
A filing indicates that , the posted an impressive 53.6% growth in total revenue to INR 752.86 crore in the second quarter of this fiscal, compared with a year earlier, as per a filing.
Not long before , there were management changes and issues related to the " Brand Usage" !
“In March 2021, Go Holdings made two applications to the Registrar of Trade Marks, for registration of two word marks used exclusively by our company, namely “Go Airlines” and “www.goair.in”.
Further, in April 2021, Jehangir Nusli Wadia made an application to the National Internet Exchange of India, to transfer 115 domain names registered in the name of our Company, from one domain registrar to another domain registrar, namely, M/s. Net4India Ltd to M/s. Network Solutions,” according to the DRHP.
Stepping down of Managing Director Jeh Wadia and elevation of Ben Baldanza as its Vice-Chairman, was an indication that Go air wanted to follow the Spirit Airlines success story, where Ben Baldanza was the CEO from year 2005 to 2016 , a period in which he led the transformation of the company into an ultra-low-cost carrier.
Now , the surge of air travellers have made the recovery possible ,total passenger revenue more than doubled to INR 866.71 crore in the first half this fiscal and the efforts and strategies to bring down costs on a sustainable basis have reflected in the results.
Another Filing said, the company’s ancillary revenue surged almost fourfold to INR 192.7 crore in the first half in comparision to the same period, compared to last year.
Founded in 2005, the airline provides ultra-low-cost flights for its customers. It carrier belongs to the Wadia Group, which comprises leading brands such as Bombay Dyeing, Britannia Ltd, and many more.
The Wadia group owns a majority stake (73.33%) stake in the airline, the remaining stake is held by entities including Baymanco Investments Ltd (21.05 %), Sea Wind Investment and Trading Company Ltd (3.76% shareholding) and some others.
DRHP reads , part of the proceeds of the IPO will be used for prepayment or scheduled repayment of all or a portion of certain outstanding borrowings availed of by the company, amounting to INR 2,015.81 crore.
Further details indicate, the funds would also be used for replacement of 'letters of credit issued to aircraft lessors towards securing lease rental payments and future maintenance of aircraft , with cash deposit of INR 279.26 crore ; repayment of dues to IOC (Indian Oil Corp.), for fuel supplied to the aircraft , worth INR 254.93 crore.
