Jet Airways gains 24% in three days ahead of buy-out bidding outcome

The stock was trading higher for the third consecutive day, up 7 per cent at Rs 158 on BSE on Friday, on the final day for bid submission.

Shares of Jet Airways inched up for the third consecutive day on Friday, rallying 7 per cent intra-day on the BSE to quote Rs 158 apiece after the airline received its first formal buy-out bid.

State Bank of India-led lenders'consortium had invited bids from potential buyers, for the temporarily shut airline, till May 10.

In the past three trading days, the stock has rallied 24 per cent as compared to a 2 per cent decline in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. It recovered 31 per cent from its multi-year low level of Rs 121 touched on Tuesday, May 7, 2019 in the intra-day trade.

The stock price of the airline has halved in three weeks' time, from Rs 242 (quoted on April 16), ever since the company suspended operations after the lenders turned down the airline’s demand for emergency funding.

According to a Business Standard report, London-based investment firm Adi Partners formally placed its bid for the cash-starved Jet Airways on Wednesday.

The company, which is led by Sanjay Viswanathan, former chief executive officer of Bangalore-based mid-cap information technology (IT) firm Sonata Software, said it was willing to tie up with Abu-Dhabi-based Etihad Airways for the bid, added report. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT      

The airline, however, said in a regulatory filing that it had no information regarding the bids submitted.

"The bidding process is initiated by and managed by SBI Capital Markets Limited under a resolution plan undertaken by a consortium of domestic lenders led by State Bank of India. The Company is not involved in the bidding process and has no information with regard to same and accordingly is not in a position to comment," it said.

The company made clarification after media reports suggested that Jason Unsworth's Atmosphere Airlines has submitted expression of interest along with Naresh Goyal and 4 other companies.

At 11:21 am, Jet Airways' stock was trading 4 per cent higher at Rs 153 on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.33 per cent at 37,681 levels. A combined 10.4 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE so far.