Jet Airways bankruptcy: NCLT gives time till 4 July to grounded airline's creditors to submit claims

Mumbai: The resolution professional for Jet Airways, which was admitted to the NCLT last week for bankruptcy, has invited claims from all creditors to the grounded airline. The airline owes over Rs 8,500 crore to a consortium of 26 banks led by State Bank, and over Rs 13,000 crore to the tens of hundreds of vendors and around 23,000-odd employees. “The creditors of Jet Airways are hereby called upon to submit their claims with proof on or before 4 July to the interim resolution professional. Financial creditors shall submit their claims with proof by electronic means only,” resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia of Grant Thornton said in a public notice. All other creditors shall submit their claims with proof in person, by post or by electronic means, it added. [caption id=“attachment_6477781” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The lenders, who had been owning the airline since 25 March with 51 percent stake, had on 17 June decided to take the airline, which stopped flying on 17 April to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as they could not find a buyer. Even the only preliminary bid from the Etihad-Hinduja consortium reportedly wanted the banks to take 90-95 percent haircut and also exemptions from open offer norms, which would not have been possible for the lenders to commit. On 20 June, the National Company Law Tribunal admitted the insolvency petition filed by State Bank of India against the airline. On that day, the tribunal comprising VP Singh and Ravikumar Duraisamy had given a verbal direction to the RP to try and finish the resolution process in three months even though the law allows six months, as “the matter is of national importance.”