NEW DELHI: An end to the tussle between IndiGo’s copromoters and founders — Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal — is not in sight, at least not immediately.
The airline’s shareholders on Wednesday rejected amendments to the articles of association (AoA) sought by the Gangwal group to remove conditions attached with selling or buying of shares by the main stakeholders. Deleting these conditions was widely seen as a precursor to a promoter exiting, thereby ending the war of attrition the airline has seen for the past few months.
Gangwal had requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) for voting on this issue, which was held here on Wednesday. But he, and his associate and non-executive independent director Anupam Khanna, did not attend. This upset many shareholders. Some of them asked about the future of the 36.6% stake the Gangwal group holds in the airline, to which IndiGo chairman M Damodaran replied that a call will be that of the promoter. The Bhatia group has a 38.3% stake in India’s largest carrier, with the rest being with the public.
