New Delhi, August 27 (IANS). Skyways Air Services Limited's Rs 582.8 crore initial public offering (IPO) is moving towards listing and saw strong enthusiasm in the gray market on the last day of bidding, with the gray market premium (GMP) of the IPO reaching nearly 33 per cent. However, some key risks noted in the company's Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) remain a matter of concern for investors.
The company has fixed the price band of Rs 131 to Rs 138 per share for the IPO. The issue comprises a fresh issue of 2.89 crore new equity shares and an offer for sale of 1.33 crore shares by existing shareholders.
However, as per the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) filed with SEBI, Skyways Air Services Limited and its significant subsidiary Brace Port Logistics Limited are currently facing investigation by the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) in connection with allegations of alleged fraud, over-billing, forgery and criminal conspiracy.
According to the documents provided by the company to SEBI, this case is related to FIR No. 0172 of the year 2025, which was registered by the Economic Offenses Wing of Delhi on December 12, 2025. This action was taken on the basis of the complaint of UK based PG Paper Company Limited. In the FIR, Skyways Air Services has been made the third accused and Brace Port Logistics as the second accused. This FIR has been registered as a pending criminal case against the company and its subsidiary in the RHP filed on August 11, 2026.
According to the allegations mentioned in the documents, PG Paper claims that Skyways Group entities, which include Brace Port, RIV Worldwide Limited (UK) and Skyways SLS Logistics GmbH, allegedly acted in a coordinated manner to acquire the freight business. It is alleged that in this process inflated freight bills were prepared, wrong information was given and fraud was committed.
The complainant claims that since the year 2021, business worth more than Rs 800 crore was done through these three subsidiaries and he directly suffered a loss of at least Rs 44.20 crore. In the representation submitted to SEBI, it has also been alleged that Brace Port and Skyways together recovered excess amount of approximately Rs 44.20 crore from the company.
According to the allegations, in some cases the freight charges were shown to be 40 per cent to 300 per cent higher than the market rates. It has also been claimed that internal control mechanisms were circumvented by allegedly influencing an employee involved in the freight procurement process.
Sections related to criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy have been invoked in the FIR.
Another significant risk the company faces is regulatory action. After the FIR was registered, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had issued a notice on May 14, 2026 regarding the proposal to suspend and cancel the Authorized Economic Operator (LO) certificate of Skyways.
The AEO-LO status of the company is suspended with effect from May 4, 2026, pending the outcome of the investigation. Skyways had submitted its reply to the concerned authority on 28 July 2026, but the matter is still pending.
Earlier, the company did not comment on the questions asked by IANS in this matter.
–IANS
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