JOIN US"This is to inform that Neil Raymond Mills has joined SpiceJet as its CEO effective from October 11, 2010," the airline said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Prior to joining SpiceJet, Neil Mills was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Dubai government-owned carrier (LCC) FlyDubai, the filing added.He had also worked with one of Europe's most successful low-cost airline, EasyJet, and has expertise in the budget airline sector.
Appointment of Mills as CEO is part of revamp exercise of the airline by its new promoter and media magnet Kalanithi Maran, who in June had clinched a deal to acquire 37.7 per cent stake in the low-cost carrier for about Rs 750 crore.
Within two months of Chennai-based industrialist clinching the deal, several top officials including the then CEO Sanjay Aggarwal and founder director Ajay Singh, left the organisation, giving a free hand to the new stakeholder to revamp the management.
The restructuring of the SpiceJet board is expected to take place after an open offer by Maran for an additional 20 per cent equity in the company. The open offer was supposed to take place in August, but was postponed by the new promoters. The new dates are yet to be announced.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has already approved the induction of Maran and five others -- Kavery Kalanithi Maran, M K Harinarayanan, J Ravindran, S Sridharan and Nicholas Martin Paul -- into the company board.
In a related development, Maran, the new promoter, increased his direct stake in the airline to 25.12 per cent on Monday through off-market transactions for Rs 135.10 crore, which is part of the deal announced in June.
SpiceJet is India's second largest low-cost carrier after IndiGo and has a market share of about 13 per cent. It is also the first domestic no-frills carrier to have international operations, with direct flights launched to Kathmandu and Colombo last week.
It operates on 20 destinations domestically and has a fleet size of 22 aircraft.
Shares of SpiceJet closed at Rs 76.85 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up 0.26 per cent from the previous close.