Jet Airways stake sale: Equity partner Etihad skips bidding process, lenders get 3 others

The lenders of Jet Airways have received only three EoIs for sale of the grounded airline’s stake, with equity partner Etihad Airways not submitting bid on the last day of the extended bidding process on Saturday. Etihad Airways holds 24 per cent stake in Jet Airways.

Sources told PTI that the banks received Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from three entities, of which two are financial players and another is a player in the global aviation space. Saturday was the last day for submitting EoIs, after the time was extended for a week on August 3.

"Three bids have been received...but Etihad Airways did not submit bids this time around," a bank source said. Industry sources said the deep-pocketed Hinduja group which had shown interest earlier also did not turn up this time.

Panama-based fund Avantulo Group is one of the three entities which have submitted EoIs, said another source. The three EoIs will be reviewed by resolution professional (RP) Ashish Chhawchharia to ascertain their eligibility.

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Late last month, the RP had floated EoIs for selling stake in the airline that stopped flying mid-April. The lead banker to the airline State Bank of India has approved Rs 10 crore interim funding and other banks are also in the process of approving the same, bankers had said.

The lenders, who had been owning the airline since March 25 with 51 per cent stake, had on June 17 decided to take the airline, which stopped flying on April 17, to the NCLT as they could not find a buyer.

Early July, the RP had said he had received claims worth over Rs 25,500 crore as of July 4, including over Rs 200 crore from founder Naresh Goyal, submitted by the holding company of the airline JetAir, but was rejected.

State Bank has made a claim of Rs 1,644 crore, including cash credit inclusive of interest, term loans and bank guarantees. Yes Bank has claimed Rs 1,084 crore, followed by PNB’s Rs 963 crore and IDBI Bank’s Rs 594 crore.

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Operational creditors excluding workmen and employees have made a claim of Rs 12,372 crore, with the entire amount being under verification, while the workmen and employees have made a claim of Rs 443 crore which is also under verification.

Apart from this, authorized representatives of workmen and employees have made 11,965 claims of Rs 735 crore, the RP said, adding other creditors, including other financial creditors and operational creditors, have made 121 claims amounting to Rs 1,105 crore.