Jet Airways lenders have extended for the third time the deadline for the submission of expressions of interest for a stake sale in the airline to August 31 after a new bidder showed interest after the August 10 deadline.
After the second deadline on August 10, there were three bids, but one opted out while another did not qualify, leaving just one in the race.
The decision to extend the deadline for EoIs was taken by the lenders at a meeting of committee of creditors held in the financial capital on Monday.
“The lenders have decided to extend the deadline till August 31,” a banker said.
The bidders in the second round were energy baron Anil Agarwal’s family trust-backed Volcan Investments, Russian Fund Treasury RA Partners and Panama-based investment firm Avantulo Group.
However, Volcan opted out of the race a day after publicly announcing its interest in Jet, while Avantulo was reportedly disqualified, leaving only the Russian fund.
After the deadline, the South American conglomerate Synergy Group Corp reportedly evinced interest in the airline, forcing the RP to seek the lenders’ nod to extend the deadline to August 31.
Synergy Group owns a majority in Colombian carrier Avianca Holdings, which has a codeshare partnership with the state-run Air India. Also, it can be noted Etihad Airways, which owns a 24 per cent stake in Jet, did not submit its bids.
This is the third time that the lenders have extended the deadline for submitting EoIs after the one on August 3 and 10.
Besides, the meeting decided that the resolution professional would seek additional funds from banks to recover some of the engines stuck at a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility in Singapore, the source added.
The bankruptcy court had on June 20 appointed Ashish Chhawchharia as RP, who late last month had floated EoIs for the airline that stopped flying mid-April.
Jet Airways has liabilities of over Rs 26,000 crore. These include over Rs 10,000 crore of vendor dues, Rs 8,500 crore along with interest owed to the lenders and over Rs 3,000 crore in salary dues.
and over Rs 13,500 crore in accumulated losses over the past three years.
It can be noted that the SBI had earlier approved a Rs 10-crore interim funding. Other banks are also in the process of approving the same, bankers said. The lenders on June 17 decided to send the airline, which stopped flying on April 17, to the NCLT as they could not find a buyer.