Passengers on the Mumbai-bound Jet Airways flight from Hyderabad recently got their ample share of in-flight entertainment as GMR Group's founder and chairman Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao kept them occupied.
Rao was not in the best of moods as he was overheard telling one his employees accompanying him to get in touch with a publishing house that had just come out with a not-so-flattering book on the tycoon.
The book labelled him a “business failure” and Rao was furious. “Please write to them immediately and ask them on what basis do they call me a business failure? How can they? Just because we have some debts doesn’t mean that they ignore everything I have done,” he was heard saying.
Rao’s next target was the pilot himself. Apparently the landing was not to his liking and Rao, who normally flies in his private jet, decided to have a word with the captain. He was overheard telling the hapless pilot: “This is not the way to land a plane. I will write to the DGCA about this.” One can only wonder how his day went after this.
Debt factor Rs 43,439 crore
The GMR Group, which became a well-known company thanks to Delhi and Hyderabad airports and also GMR’s IPL team — the Delhi Daredevils — is in deep debt as it owes Rs 43,439 crore to banks. While it has commensurate assets to back the liabilities, the infrastructure company had reportedly defaulted on interest last April.
Subsequently, agency Icra had put its power projects under default rating. According to experts, overbidding is the reason for the mountain of debt. Like most of infrastructure companies, GMR made aggressive bids for projects, taking a very positive view of global and Indian economy.
However, the economy did not grow as expected and so the demand. The revenue fell short of expectation and profits declined. But higher interest rate increased expenses and regulatory stance on airports became worse, pushing the company into trouble.
