Jet Airways finds a buyer 1.5 years after collapse

The Committee of Creditors of Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int’l) approved in an e-voting concluded on October 17, 2020, a bid for the airline submitted by Murari Jalan and Florian Fritsch, Resolution Professional Ashish Chhawchharia communicated in a stock market disclosure. Florian Fritsch is the founder of Kalrock Capital, a part of the bidding joint venture. The sale has yet to be approved by the National Company Law Tribunal, which has until October 21 to issue the final decision. According to Business Standard, 99% of creditors voted in favour of the bid, clearly preferring it over a rival proposal submitted by a consortium of FlyBig (Indore), New Delhi’s Flight Simulation Technique Centre, and Abu Dhabi’s Imperial Capital Investments. The winning bid filed by the Murari Jalan-Kalrock consortium proposes to repay INR8.7 billion rupees (USD118 million) to creditors out of Jet Airways’ total debt burden of around INR150 billion (USD2.05 billion). Crediting banks will get a 9% stake in the airline and an opportunity to take a cut from the potential sale of remaining assets. “By voting for the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, in the midst of the pandemic, the lenders have voted for resolution over liquidation, thereby truly vindicating the spirit of India’s insolvency process. Stakeholders, including employees, are naturally excited. With the support of all including the government, we expect Jet to fly once again, soon,” Chief Strategy Officer Rajesh Prasad said. At this point, no further details have been revealed as to the potential timeline for the carrier’s restart. Jet Airways has been dormant since April 2019. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, the airline continues to own nine aircraft – five B777-300(ER)s, two B737-800s, and one A330-200 and B737-900 each. Sanjay Mandavia, the founder of FlyBig, said that the failure of his bid for Jet Airways would not derail his plans regarding the imminent launch of the regional carrier. He told Business Standard that he would now be able to entirely focus on FlyBig. Previously, he targeted synergies between the two airlines in case of winning the approval of Jet Airways’ creditors – FlyBig would then have become a regional feeder for relaunched Jet Airways.