London-based Kalrock Capital and UAE businessman Murari Lal Jalan have submitted a plan to revive the grounded Jet Airways to the committee of creditors. The airline may fly again by middle of next year if the new owners are able to raise required funds through a mix of measures like infusing equity of about £100 million, selling the six old planes owned by Jet to get a few new ones and offering equity to lenders.
Jet, India’s oldest private airline, ran out of funds completely last year and had its last flight on April 18, 2019. Since then attempts were being made to revive Jet again as it became the first Indian carrier to be admitted under insolvency and bankruptcy code. Ashish Chhawchharia, resolution professional for Jet, said that the resolution plans submitted by two applicants were discussed by the committee of creditors (CoC) members and put to e-vote and has been approved by the CoC.
Now final approval of National Company Law Tribunal is being sought for the same by the resolution professional. Once cleared by the NCLT, the winning consortium will start the process for Jet to take off again by raising required funds, getting a fleet and seeking return of the slots as per requirement that were given to other airlines after last April.
While creditors and employees made claims of over £4 billion, the resolution professional admitted claims for £1.55 billion. Now whether Jet takes off again depends on the ability of the winning consortia to raise the required resources as airlines are a very cash-intensive business. The onus is now on the JV of European entrepreneur Florian Fritsch founded financial advisory and asset management company Kalrock Capital and Dubai-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan.
The other resolution plan was submitted by a consortium of Imperial Capital-FSTC which is launching a startup airline in India called Fly Big. This airline has won some routes under regional connectivity scheme and will operate them with turboprops.
