Only four out of twelve suitors that came forward to submit an Expression of Interest to acquire grounded airline Jet Airways have made the eligibility cut, as per people in the know.
CNBC-TV18 had earlier reported that Jet Airways received twelve Expressions of Interest (EOIs) in the latest round of bidding. However, most of them did not meet the eligibility criteria set out by the committee of creditors, said people in the know.
Four players have now been shortlisted to submit bids for the airline, and have been asked to submit binding bids by July 11, CNBC-TV18 has learned. These include UK-based Kalrock Capital Partners along with an individual by the name of Murari Lal Jalan who is a resident of Dubai, people familiar with the matter told CNBC-TV18.
The second shortlisted player is another consortium comprising of Abu Dhabi based Imperial Capital Investments LLC (ICIL), Haryana-based Flight Simulation Technique Centre Pvt Ltd (FSTCPL) and Mumbai-based Big Charter Pvt Ltd (BCPL).
The third shortlisted player is a Canadian entrepreneur by the name of Sivakumar Rasiah, and the fourth player is Kolkatta based Alpha Airways, said sources who did not wish to be quoted.
Little is known about these four suitors that now remain in the fray for the airline. Banks CNBC_TV18 spoke to are not very confident of these EOIs getting converted into real bids, and say liquidation is a very real possibility.
This is the fourth round of bidding for Jet Airways, which was grounded over a year back and subsequently referred to the National Company Law Tribunal in June 2019 by its lenders.
The eight who did not make the eligibility cut included individuals Brijesh Singhla, Gladson Sabu Varghese, Jason Unsworth, Pramod Srivastav, Claude Bothello, as per sources. A consortium of Jet Airways employees also submitted an EOI, as did UK-based AdiGro Aviation and Turbo Aviation, said people in the know. Synergy Group was disqualified under Section 29A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, CNBC-TV18 has learned.
“The revised timeline for completion of the CIRP of Jet is now August 21, 2020, subject to any further extension of the lockdown by the state government of Maharashtra or the Central Government, as the case may be,” Ashish Chhawchharia, the Resolution Professional for Jet Airways said in an exchange notification earlier this month.
The airline has received claims of over Rs 37,300 crores under NCLT from various creditors. Of these, the resolution professional has admitted claims of over Rs 15,900 crores. This also includes claims of over Rs 8,000 crores from a clutch of banks led by State Bank of India, Yes Bank, Punjab National Bank and others.
