Cash-strapped Jet Airways gets seven new EoIs in fresh bidding round

Jet Airways in its fourth attempt to find a suitor for its revival has received seven expressions of interest (EoIs) from several entities, along with Synergy Group’s letter of continuity, according to people in the know. The deadline to submit EoIs for the beleaguered company ends on Thursday. 

The UK-based Kalrock Capital, Hyderabad-based Turbo Aviation, Alpha Airways and Canadian citizen Siva Rasiah have expressed interest in Jet and submitted EoIs. Names of other entities could not be confirmed. This might be the last attempt made by the resolution professional to find a suitor to revive the airline. Jet shuts operations in April last year and was admitted to the insolvency process in June 2019.

South America-based Syn-ergy Group has again expressed interest in infusing a fresh lease of life in the company. Synergy Group has been a constant name in all the rounds of bidding but has so far failed to come up with a concrete plan to revive the airline because of certain reservations it had on the issue of slots both in the domestic and international routes.

Capt  P P Singh, who worked as senior vice-president (operations) in Jet, has expressed interest but has sought more time to submit an EoI. Lenders of Jet in its last committee of creditors’ meeting decided to call for fresh EoIs and revised the criteria for bidding. Interested parties, with a net worth of ~500 crore, were allowed to submit EoIs this time. 

This was done because lenders felt liquidation would not yield any value for them. Earlier, the bankruptcy tribunal had extended the corporate insolvency resolution process of Jet by 90 days. Jet’s 270 day CIRP ended in mid-March. The NCLT has already said the period of lockdown would be excluded from the CIRP period.

The revised timeline for completion of the CIRP of Jet is now August 21, 2020, subject to any further extension of the lockdown by the state government of Maharashtra or the central government, as the case may be, the RP informed the exchanges earlier this month.

“The global aviation Industry is virtually going belly up and it is estimated that as many as 14,000 aircraft will be grounded. It is thus an appropriate time perhaps to negotiate the best of terms and deals with OEMs, leasing companies, maintenance providers, etc. Aviation fuel is also in an attractive band. With cost of operations being friendly as never before, even if passenger load factor is reduced, the profitability potential looks promising,” said Rajesh Prasad, chief strategy officer of Jet Airways.