The troubled private airline Jet Airways may go into liquidation since no serious offer has been received for the airline that has run up huge debts and its operations have been shut for over four months, as per reports. There were some expressions of interest received by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) and the resolution professional (RP). However, most of them either withdrew or conveyed their decision not to pursue with the case.
Some of the serious contenders were Etihad Airline which already had an association with Jet Airways under Naresh Goyal. The Vedanta Group’s Volcan Investments was another company that showed interest but backed out. Apart from these there were hardly any proposals worth being taken up at the level of CoC.
In terms of the timeframe, the judge hearing the Jet Airways case had given a 90-day window to the CoC to find a buyer for the airline. This was in June and that 90-day period gets over in the next few days. The creditors are expected to meet shortly and as on date it appears the only option in front of them will be to bind the airline over for insolvency.
If that happens, then the lenders may have to be satisfied with only a fraction of the funds they had invested. The question that many interested observers are asking is what happens to the creditors are not of Indian origin and whether they would be bound by the running of the National Company Law Tribunal in such matters?
Reports indicate the airline owed around Rs 30,600 crore of which, the financial creditors alone claimed around Rs 10,220 crore.