AdiGroup joins Jet Airways' employees to bid for 75 per cent of airline

IN a first-of-its-kind initiative, a Jet Airways employees consortium and London-based AdiGroup on Friday (28) announced a partnership to bid for 75 per cent of the airline, which is facing bankruptcy proceedings, through the NCLT process.

The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted an insolvency petition filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) on behalf of 26 lenders on June 20 for the debt-laden company which owes around Rs 250 billion (£2.86bn) to lenders, vendors, lessors, and employees.

"Jet Airways Employee Consortium and AdiGroup are delighted to announce their partnership to bid for acquisition of 75 per cent of Jet Airways through NCLT process," a joint statement said from the consortium and the UK investor said.

"This is a new dawn in the history of India Aviation of operating an airline through Employee Initiative programme where every single employee of Jet Airways will become an owner of the airline," it said.

At a press conference in New Delhi, Sandeep Vishwanathan, chairman and managing partner of Adigroup, said, "It is a real blessing in disguise that we have here with us the NCLT process for three reasons. Firstly, the fact that the NCLT themselves have accorded this an asset of national importance, that itself means that they want to complete the process in 90 days, which is significant."

"Second is that it removes any open offer restrictions, which means every penny that we bring as investors will go into rescuing the airline," he said.

"Thirdly, we got such a phenomenal opportunity to get to know the employees and the management.... This (bid) actually gives us an opportunity to have them as joint owners," Vishwanathan said.

As Jet Airways ran out of funds, it shut down its operations on April 17 this year which led to a sudden rise in domestic and international airfares.

As a result, the central government decided to temporarily allocate the domestic slots as well as international flying rights of Jet Airways to other airlines who could start new flights immediately and fill the supply gap.

Vishwanathan said that in order to restart the airline, "we need these slots".

"Some of these prime slots are in Delhi and Mumbai and we would need them back. We have been given reassurance that these slots have only been given for a period of time," he added.   Asked how much AdiGroup plans to invest in Jet Airways, Vishwanthan said that the investment can be anywhere between Rs 25bn and Rs 50bn.

"We are waiting for (financial) data from RP (Resolution Professional) through this process.... We need clarity on that," he added.

About shareholding, he said that if successful, AdiGroup will take up to 49 per cent, the employee consortium will take up to 26 per cent and the remaining shares will be held by the lenders.

"We have informed the NCLT through the RP" about our interest in bidding for the airline, he clarified.         "We expect that if everything goes according to plans, we will be asked to put formal Expression of Interest by the end of the month," he said.

Captain Ashwani Tyagi, general secretary of Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP), said the airline was like a family to him and it was "challenging yet exciting journey to revive Jet Airways".   He said that the employees are all together in this bid.

"In this employee consortium, every employee will contribute. And every employee will come together," Tyagi said.

Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association (JAMEWA) president Ashish Kumar Mohanty told that the airline has currently around 9,000 employees on its payroll and that "99 per cent of them have agreed to be a part of this consortium".

Mohanty added that many ex-employees, who left the airline in last few months, have also agreed to be a part of this consortium.

(PTI)