SpiceJet rallies over 4% as it settles dispute with Celestial Aviation

Shares of budget-carrier SpiceJet zoomed 4.4 per cent to Rs 70.4 apiece on the BSE in Monday's intraday trade after the airline told the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that their dispute with aircraft lessor Celestial Aviation is "practically settled" and only formalities remain.

At 12:35 PM, shares of Ajay Singh-owned airline were trading 2 per cent higher at Rs 68.86 per share as against 0.5 per cent dip in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. Sharea of peer firm InterGlobe Aviation, meanwhile, were down 1 per cent.

With this, aircraft lessor Celestial Aviation, that had demanded unpaid dues of $30 million, is expected to withdraw its insolvency plea against the carrier. Celestial, however, told the NCLT that while they have received payments, SpiceJet had missed certain agreed upon payment deadlines. READ MORE

The case has now been adjourned to April 2024. 

In October 2023, SpiceJet had informed the NCLT that it wanted to pursue a settlement with Celestial. Later in December, SpiceJet told the tribunal that they had initiated payments to Celestial.

Celestial was the lessor after Willis Lease Finance, Aircastle and Wilmington, to have moved a petition against the budget carrier last year.

Meanwhile, last week, SpiceJet said it has raised a second tranche of Rs 316 crore under the preferential issue of equity and warrants, which was approved by shareholders in early January.

On January 26, the first tranche of Rs 744 crore was infused into the airline. On January 11, the beleaguered airline's shareholders gave their approval to raise a total of Rs 2,241.5 crore through the issuance of equity and warrants – Rs 1,591.5 crore by issuing equity to 58 entities and Rs 650 crore by issuing warrants on a preferential basis to five other entities.

This means that a remaining Rs 1,181.5 crore is yet to be infused into the airline by the investors. These 63 entities include financial institutions, foreign institutional investors, high-net-worth individuals, and private investors such as Preeti Mahapatra, Harihara Mahapatra, Elara India Opportunities Fund, and Aries Opportunities Fund.

For the July-September quarter, SpiceJet reported consolidated net loss of Rs 449 crore, down from Rs 830 crore in the year-ago period. The company had posted a profit of Rs 198 crore in the preceding June quarter.

Consolidated revenue from operations fell 27 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,429 crore.