In the latest on the corporate war saga between the two founders of IndiGo, Rahul Bhatia says he played the more significant role in taking massive financial risks as well as nurturing the airline in its nascent years with his company InterGlobe Enterprises’s established presence in the aviation sector.
Until IndiGo had a strong balance sheet to support itself seven years after it was set up, it was left to Rahul Bhatia’s IGE Group, “to fend for IndiGo”, the IGE Group said in a press statement on Sunday. At the peak of its turbulence phase, Mr. Bhatia and his father Kapil Bhatia “extended personal loans to IndiGo and personal guarantees to the banks for diverse financing needs of IndiGo such as pre-delivery payments, aircraft acquisition, and working capital requirements” totalling to ₹1,100 crore, which was 80 times of ₹15 crore equity invested by Mr. Gangwal who wanted limited exposure to risk, the statement adds.
Not mincing words to attack his co-promoter at IndiGo, Rahul Bhatia’s IGE says, “Mr. Gangwal was missing in action” during this difficult time and in fact attempted to de-risk himself and pushed for the business to be sold.
“Is there sanctity in agreements entered into by business people- freely and at their own will”, the IGE group asks Rakesh Gangwal, who has alleged that the airline is “veering off from the core principles and values” of corporate governance.
While co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has alleged that Rahul Bhatia has tried to benefit from the increase in business from IndiGo to his company IGE over the years, the latter has said that it was an established player in the aviation sector much before IndiGo was born and that its slew of businesses had supported the airline in its fledgling years through its pan India sales and distribution network, call centre and IT services, and office space, some of which were also provided on a complimentary basis.
