Bourses unite to clip Kingfisher's market wings

In a major clampdown for non-compliance of Listing Agreement, top exchanges BSE and NSE on Friday announced suspension of trading in shares of Kingfisher Airlines and another group firm, UB Engineering, from next month.

Besides, the entire promoter shareholding of these companies have been frozen with effect from Friday itself.

The action follows non-compliance to a Listing Agreement clause relating to timely preparation and disclosure of financial results by a listed company for two consecutive quarters. The results are required to be disclosed by listed companies on stock exchange platform for benefit of investors.

In separate circulars, BSE and NSE said that the trading would be suspended in securities of Kingfisher and UB Engineering -- both parts of crisis-hit UB group headed by Vijay Mallya -- with effect from December 1.

The suspension follows Sebi guidelines with respect to Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for suspension and revocation of trading of shares of listed entities for noncompliance of the Listing Agreement that a listed company needs to follow pursuant to its shares getting listed and traded on a stock exchange.

Shares of Kingfisher, once touted as most luxurious airline in India, are currently trading below Rs 2 apiece and its market capitalisation now stands at just about Rs 150 crore. At one point of time, before financial troubles began and led to its grounding in October 2012, the company carried a market valuation of close to Rs 10,000 crore.

For the year ended March 2013, the carrier saw its net loss widen to Rs 4,301.12 crore. During that period, the gross income stood at Rs 683.46 crore. A consortium of 17 banks has an outstanding debt of about Rs 6,521 crore from the now-grounded carrier and outside the consortium, there are some other loans also.

In Kingfisher, promoters have just 8.54 per cent stake, while public holding stands very high at 91.46 per cent.

The non-promoter shareholders include more than two lakh small investors, over 6,000 HNIs, over 2000 NRIs and 13 FIIs, among others.

Along with Kingfisher and UB Engineering, NSE has also announced trading suspension for securities of Varun Industries Limited on account of non-compliance with Clause 41 of the Listing Agreement for two consecutive quarters, that is quarter ended March, 2014 and June, 2014.