Jet Airways Crisis: London-based AdiGro Group offers to restart airline's operations by July 1

London-based AdiGro Group, the parent company of AdiGro Aviation has offered to restart the Jet Airways' operations by July 1. The company which is one of the unsolicited bidders for Jet Airways has proposed to resume its operations with eight to nine thousand employees and 70 aircraft.

Sanjay Viswanathan, Founder and Chairman of AdiGroup expressed his keenness to partner with Etihad Airways and turn around the 25 year old airline which had shut its operations on April 17.

As a part of the six-point plan of the London-based company, Balance sheet management and not operating the airline like a lifestyle company are the two main elements for reviving Jet.

Viswanathan said that the company wants its top leadership will need to take a 25% pay cut while the other employees will have to give up 10%, and in return they will be offered ESOPs.

"We have asked for a relevant and practical haircut, but more importantly, we are actually giving equity upside. Our binding bid has an equity component for the lender group, which means that not only will they recover their money, but also get a significant upside once our turnaround plan is executed," he told The Hindu Business Line.

State Bank of India (SBI), which leads a consortium of domestic lenders to Jet Airways began approaching unsolicited bidders earlier this week including UK-based entrepreneur Jason Unsworth, Mumbai-based Darwin Platform Group and AdiGro Aviation.

Viswanathan also told the news daily that AdiGro Aviation has "put in a binding bid" to revive Jet for which the company has been in constant touch with Etihad. "We need approximately ?5,000-6,000 crore (to resurrect the airline). It's [the assumption] based on our discussions with Etihad and SBICaps so far," he said.

AdiGro Group which is based out of London is a foreign company and as per the FDI rules, a foreign group cannot own more than 49% stake in an Indian company. The company has offered to pick a 24.9% stake with Etihad owning about 24.1% stake in Jet.

SBI Caps is putting together a book, which will index all the assets and liabilities of the company as well as the capital required. Viswanathan said he is positive that AdiGro will partner with Etihad and revive Jet. "We will resurrect the airline by July 1," he added.

AdiGro, however, has clearly defined its conditions that its investors want Viswanathan to be the Non-Executive Chairman of Jet. However, he said that the company will rope in operating experts from India who have sound knowledge of India's aviation market.

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