India’s Jet Airways rejects claim about winning bid

Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int’l) clarified in a stock exchange filing on October 8 that a consortium consisting of London-based asset management firm Kalrock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan, an investor based in the United Arab Emirates, had not won a round of bidding for the bankrupt carrier. The insolvency resolution professional at Jet Airways, which ceased operations saddled with debts in April 2019, said in the filing that the committee of creditors had not concluded e-voting on the final proposals submitted by two shortlisted bidders, whose proposals will be put to vote on October 16. The resolution professional – creditor-appointed Ashish Chhawchharia, who leads the restructuring practice for Grant Thornton in India – said in the filing that the Kalrock consortium had assured him it had not made any statements claiming to have won the process. The consortium is pitched against a rival bid from a consortium combining start-up regional carrier FlyBig (Indore), New Delhi’s Flight Simulation Technique Centre, and Abu Dhabi’s Imperial Capital Investments. The insolvency process had been expected to conclude in June 2020, but the deadline was extended to August 21 due to the ongoing pandemic and then extended again by Chhawchharia for an unspecified period. On October 8, India’s Economic Times had reported that Igor Starha, managing partner at Kalrock, had told it the previous evening by phone: “Our consortium was chosen by the committee of creditors in a meeting that concluded this evening.” The Economic Times also claimed, citing an unnamed source who had allegedly viewed the bids, that the Kalrock consortium planned to inject INR3.8 billion rupees (USD52 million) into Jet Airways in the first two years and another INR5.8 billion (USD79 million) in years three to five. It would also put up collateral amounting to INR2.5 billion (USD34 million) as security and promised cash to creditors from year three onwards, irrespective of what happens to the airline, the source allegedly said.