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Kuoni plans public issue by year-end

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, March 24

KUONI Travel India, part of the Swiss Travel Group Kuoni Travel, plans to enter the primary capital market with an Initial Public Offer (IPO) towards the end of the year, the visiting President and Chief Executive Officer, Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd (KTHL) , Mr. Hans Lerch, has said.

``We hope to come out with an initial public offer sometime during the winter months and list the shares of Kuoni India on the Mumbai and National Stock exchanges. We hope to price the share anywhere between Rs. 400-600, '' Mr. Lerch said at a press conf erence here on Friday.

He said that SITA World Travel India Ltd, which has been acquired by the Zurich-headquartered KTHL, will become its 100 per cent subsidiary from April 1. SITA World Travel will be eventually merged with Kuoni Travel India (formerly SOTC Kuoni Travel Indi a) and this is expected to be completed by September-end.

Claiming that the merged entity will create India's largest travel company, Mr. Lerch said that the group has identified the merger and acquisition route for growth in the country.``We have always preferred this route and we have announced three mergers/ acquisitions transactions in the past four weeks'', he said.

Mr. Lerch, however, declined to disclose the value for which KTHL acquired SITA Travel.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Kuoni Travel India, Mr. Ranjit Malkani, said that the merged entity, after the merger of SITA World Travel with Kuoni India, is expected to close the current fiscal with an annual turnover of over Rs. 400 crores and a profit after tax in excess of Rs. 20 crores.

Pic.:(From left) Mr. Max Katz, Finance Officer, and Mr. Hans Lerch, President & CEO, Kuoni Travel Holding, Switzerland, with Mr. Inder Sharma, Chairman, Sita Travel, and Mr. Ranjit Malkani, Chairman and Managing Director, Kuoni Travels India, during a pr ess conference in New Delhi on Friday.