Jet Airways crisis: Lenders to take debt-laden airline to NCLT as banks yet to get any concrete proposal for revival

Mumbai: State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders on Monday decided to send the now-grounded Jet Airways to the National Company Law of Tribunal (NCLT) as they have not yet received any concrete proposal for the airline. The decision was taken after a meeting of the lenders. “After due deliberations, the lenders have decided to seek resolution for Jet Airways under the bankruptcy code since only a conditional bid was received,” State Bank of India (SBI) said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_6478521” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The statement further said the move was necessitated as the prospective investor wants some Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) exemption in the deal which can be worked out better under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The bank said lenders have been making efforts to find a resolution for the grounded carrier outside IBC but now have decided to seek a resolution within the IBC. It can be noted that on 10 June, two operational creditors — Shaman Wheels and Gaggar Enterprises — had moved the NCLT seeking bankruptcy proceedings against the airline and on 13 June the tribunal, which is yet to admit the petitions put off the matter for further hearing to 20 June. The tribunal asked these parties to serve legal notices to the grounded Jet Airways. The airline, which was grounded on 17 April, owes Rs 8.74 crore to Shaman Wheels and Rs 53 lakh to Gaggar. Jet Airways owes more than Rs 8,000 crore to a consortium of banks led by the SBI, which now run the airline, while it has a much larger debt pile by way of accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore and vendor dues of over Rs 10,000 crore and salary dues of over Rs 3,000 crore.