Jet Airways Employees’ Consortium Joins Hands With AdiGroup to Bid for 75% of Airlines
Representational image. | Image Courtesy: Hindu Business Line
New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a Jet Airways Employee Consortium and London-based AdiGroup on Friday announced a partnership to bid for 75% of the airlines through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) process, members of the consortium said.
The debt-laden company became the first domestic airliner to go into bankruptcy after the Mumbai Bench of the NCLT admitted an insolvency petition filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) on behalf of 26 lenders on June 20.
The airline owes Rs 8,500 crore to banks and around Rs 25,000 crore in arrears to vendors, lessors and employees.
Citing it as a matter of national importance, the NCLT also suggested a timeline of 90 days for the resolution of the case, although, as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code provisions, which allows corporate insolvency resolution, the process is supposed to be completed in 180 days, with a provision of extension by another 90 days. Subsequently, the NCLT asked the appointed Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP) to submit the first progress report before July 5.
“Jet Airways Employee Consortium and AdiGroup are delighted to announce their partnership to bid for acquisition of 75 per cent of Jet Airways through NCLT process. …This is a new dawn in the history of India Aviation of operating an airline through Employee Initiative programme where every single employee of Jet Airways will become an owner of the airline.
“It truly embodies prime minister's dream ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwas’,” a joint statement from the consortium and the AdiGroup said.
At a press conference here Capt. Ashwani Tyagi, Commander Boeing 777, General Secretary-Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots, and one of Jet's senior-most pilots who has been with the airline for 18 years said the airlines was like a family to him and it was “challenging yet exciting journey to revive Jet Airways.”
The partnership may invest in the range of ₹2,500-5,000 crore as part of the airline's restructuring plan, as per a report in LiveMint.
(Inputs from PTI)
Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
