Three senior executives - Pradeep Kumar (senior vice- president, cargo), Shrimanikandan Ananthvaidyanathan (chief information officer) and Praveen Iyer (vice-president, revenue management), have quit amid worsening financial situation
A Russian fund submitted its interest to the resolution professional on February 14 and also hired a consultancy firm to help them with the bidding process.
Weeks before shutting down operations on April 17, a logistics vendor had taken possession of a Jet aircraft--a Boeing 777--at the Amsterdam airport for non-payment of dues.
In terms of traded volume, 19.47 lakh shares were traded on the BSE, while over 1 crore shares were traded on the NSE.
Naresh Goyal, after being ousted with his wife from the board last week, and with his shareholding halved to 25 per cent, can still make a comeback by partnering a new investor and win back majority control.
The unions opposed any move to force banks to lend more money to the airline, saying Naresh Goyal is still the promoter and major shareholder with 51 per cent stake and it is his headache to run the company or sell it to someone.
The airline has struggled to pay salaries and vendors on time and its Rs 10,963 crore fund and non fund based facilities have now been assigned 'D' rating by ICRA - the seventh rating downgrade since March 2017.
The first tranche of $31 million was due on March 11, while the second instalment of $109 million was due on March 28.
'There will be no flying unless the company pays us substantial salaries and provides a road map,' the National Aviators Guild, the pilots union, said in a message to its members.
In an emotionally-charged letter to the 22,000-strong employees, Goyal said the approval of the debt-recast plan will put the carrier on a "sounder and sustainable" financial footing.
The April 2 Supreme Court order quashing the February 12, 2018 RBI circular (which ended all debt recast plans even on a one-day default) put paid to the resolution plan as banks were left with no leeway to restructure the loan and pay the promised Rs 1,500 crore interim funds.
Another reason working in Air India's favour now is the government's plan to clean up part of the airline's burgeoning debt from its books - a major deterrent for investors when it attempted divestment the previous time.
Government officials were struggling to understand why the lenders denied emergency funds even after giving verbal assurances on providing Rs 1,200 crore.
After 18 months of closure, what really could be salvaged? And the answer sadly is, precious little, Patience, perseverance and plenty of moolah is the way forward even assuming intent is in place, says Anjuli Bhargava.
"It would be appropriate for you to include two representatives from us so as to better understand our concerns about the company, and also to enable the new shareholders to confidently expect a highly empowered and engaged workforce," Jet staff told SBI.
The fairy tale turnaround story has, however, taken a few knocks after a second wave of the pandemic has brought a series of default notices and has posed the toughest test for the 55-year old Singh to save the airline he founded and sold to the Marans only to assume control later.
Both lenders and Etihad are not comfortable with the entities holding stake in Jet as they have no proven credentials in running a big business
The IRP has admitted 33 claims from banks worth Rs 8,462 crore, and is verifying Rs 15,044-crore claims from operational creditors and staff.
Options include fresh capital infusion by the management and/or some new investors.
Earlier when Goyal had moved court seeking permission to go abroad, the judge had observed that if he wanted to go abroad, he should first deposit Rs 18,000 crore as guarantee that his company owes to lenders.
Among the other conditions of the Hinduja group for picking up a stake in Jet is that bankers must take a haircut of 80 per cent and that they should help negotiate with operational creditors like aircraft lessors for moratorium on certain immediate payments.
This is an exceptional case of extension beyond the 330-day limit under the insolvency and bankruptcy code.
Court order follows submission of govt lawyers that Serious Fraud Investigation Office was probing a case of misappropriation of fund by Jet Airways and Goyal.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would consider a joint request for mediation of low-cost airline SpiceJet and media baron Kalanithi Maran and his Kal Airways for amicably settling all pending disputes between them including the row over the share-transfer issue. A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices J K Maheshwari and Hima Kohli was apprised by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for SpiceJet, that there were three pending issues between the low-cost airline and Maran and out of these, one has been settled on July 29. Initially, Rohatgi sought four to six week time for settling all the issues between the parties.
"We humbly request to you to alleviate some of the hardships that we and engineers have been facing, by ensuring that the new Jet management does not further delay our pending salaries dues at the earliest," NAG general secretary Tej Sood said in an e-mail to SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar.
'The airline business is very dynamic. If you are unable to keep up and lead, you end up last.' 'This is what has happened to Jet.'
The airline is operating just 6-7 planes, with almost its entire fleet being grounded due to non-payment of rentals to lessors amid severe paucity of cash.
Jet has been operating on international routes since 2004, being the first private airline to do so in decades, after it launched a Chennai-Colombo service in March that year.
Signs of financial stress were visible when the airline reported a loss of Rs 10.40 billion.
The airline has proposed to raise authorised share capital to Rs 2,200 crore. This would comprise Rs 680 crore of equity capital and Rs 1,520 crore of preference share capital.
The bankruptcy tribunal had on July 5, prevented the Directorate General of Civil Aviation from deregistering the Boeing 777 plane, which has been under the possession of a Dutch cargo provider since April.
Indian bankers are fearful that going out of their way to save Jet could lead to subsequent harassment from investigative agencies.
The airline is sitting on a debt pile of over Rs 8,200 crore and has defaulted thrice since January, including on some forex debt.
Sources said Unsworth had submitted a one-page letter indicating his interest in Jet but without any accompanying documents.
Currently most of its 119 planes have been taken back by the lessors and many have been leased to other airlines like SpiceJet. The second challenge is that it has to repay banks.
Bankers gave money to Mallya's airline though it was not enough to even service existing debt?
Sensex heavyweight Reliance Industries fell 2.76 per cent. In percentage terms, major laggards were Yes Bank, Indusind Bank, RIL, ICICI Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank -- plunging as much as 6.62 per cent.
Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Vedanta, Coal India, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid, HCL Tech and Bajaj Finance, rising up to 2.65 per cent.
Barring stray references such as the 'dual control' of banks and shifting the goalposts during demonetisation, he is not in a fault-finding mode with the government, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'Airports must look at their maximum capacity to handle passengers.'
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