Jet Airways Employee Consortium, AdiGroup Announce Joint Partnership To Bid For 75% Of Airline Through NCLT Process

The Jet Airways Employees’ Consortium and the London-based AdiGroup have announced a joint partnership to bid for 75% of the airlines through the ongoing National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) process, according to a joint statement issued recently.

The Jet Airways Employees’ Consortium consists of The Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP) and Jet Airways Aircraft Maintenance Engineers' Association (JAMEWA).

AdiGroup-owned AdiGro Aviation’s founder Sanjay Viswanathan stated that the partnership will bid for a 75% stake in the grounded airline, of which the London-based firm will take a 49% stake, while the rest of the stake would be with the Jet Airways’ Employees’ Consortium.

Viswanathan also stated that the partnership has got assurances from the government that Jet Airways slots and its flying rights will be returned. The partnership also hopes to get back 69 of Jet Airways' aircraft.

Accordingly, the partnership has informed the resolution professional overseeing the Jet Airways insolvency process about their interest, and the resolution profession is expected to soon float an expression of interest for the bids shortly.

Earlier, the Mumbai Bench of the NCLT had admitted an insolvency petition filed by a consortium of Jet’s lenders led by the State Bank of India (SBI), on June 20.

The airline owes Rs 8,500 crore to banks and around Rs 25,000 crore in arrears to vendors, lessors and employees.

Before the Jet Airways case reached the NCLT, AdiGro Aviation had offered to invest Rs 2,500 crore for a 24.9% stake in the grounded airline, as part of the talks which had also involved Etihad Airways and Hinduja Group to revive the airline.

However, after these talks broke down later, Jet Airways’ lenders consortium led by SBI, moved the NCLT.