Mumbai: The consortium of 26 bankers led by State Bank Tuesday took the grounded Jet Airways to the National Company Law Tribunal to recover their dues of over Rs 8,500 crore.
The tribunal will hear the matter Wednesday. Jet Airways, started over 25 years ago by airline- ticketing-agent-turned-entrepreneur Naresh Goyal, stopped flying on April 17 after it ran out of cash and the unpaid lessors took away most of its 100-odd operational airplanes.
The lenders have been trying to sell the airline as a going concern since the past five months, but failed due to many a reason. Apart from banks, the airline also owes over Rs 10,000 crore to its hundreds of vendors, primarily aircraft lessors and over Rs 3,000 crore to around 23,000 employees who have not been paid since March.
Also, most of its domestic airport slots have been given away to other airlines by the government and so are some of its slots at some key international airports.
On the aeroplane asset side, Jet had only 16 on its book which are valued around Rs 5,000 crore as per some media reports, as the rest of its 123 fleet were on lease and most of them have been de-registered or taken away by the foreign lessors already.
Following a meeting of the lenders on Monday, SBI had said that “after due deliberations, the lenders have decided to seek resolution for Jet Airways under the bankruptcy code since only a conditional bid was received”.
The statement further said the move was necessitated as the prospective investor (a consortium of Etihad Airways and Hinduja group) wants some Sebi exemptions waiving the open offer requirement, which can be worked out better under the bankruptcy laws.
The decision of the lenders to seek bankruptcy comes exactly two months after the airline stopped flying on April 17, after being on the fringe since last July.
Two operational creditors–Shaman Wheels and Gaggar Enterprises– had already taken the airline to the NCLT on June 10, which will hear the pleas on June 20. (PTI)
