Anil Agarwal's Volcan Investment seeks expression of interest for Jet Airways

Vedanta Limited Chairman Anil Agarwal's family trust, Volcan Investment, in an exploratory move, has sought an Expression of Interest (EoI) for debt-ridden Jet Airways.

"Volcan Investment, investment company for Anil Agarwal, in an exploratory move, has sought an EoI for Jet Airways, to understand the business scenario for the company and the industry," said the trust.

"This EOI is in no way linked to Vedanta," it added.

Volcan and Vedanta Resources are the parent companies of Vedanta Ltd which holds Cairn India Holdings.

Jet Airways has received only three Expression of Interests (EoIs) for the stake sale of the bankrupt airline. Etihad Airways which owns 24 per cent stake in Jet has not submitted its bid on Saturday. It was the last day of the bidding process which was extended for a week on August 3.

Panama-based Avantulo Group have forwarded its EoI submission, sources told PTI.

"Three bids have been received but Etihad Airways did not submit bids this time around," a bank source told the news agency.

These three EoIs will be examined by resolution professional (RP) Ashish Chhawchharia to verify their eligibility. The RP is appointed by India's bankruptcy court on June 20 this year after it directed insolveny proceeding against the cash-strapped airline.

The final bids are to be submitted by September 12.

The RP last month had invited EoIs to sell the assets of grounded Jet that stopped flying mid-April.

Volcan Investments owns 100% stake in Vedanta Resources which is London based and owns 50.1% in Vedanta India. Volcan also owns 21% of Anglo American which is a globally diversified mining business comprising De Beers, Platinum, Copper and other precious metals, coal, iron ore and nickel

Jet Airways has liabilities over Rs 26,000 crore. These include more than Rs 10,000 crore of vendor dues, Rs 8,500 crore along with interest owed to the lenders, over Rs 3,000 crore in salary dues, and over Rs 13,500 crore in accumulated losses over the past three years.

Also read: Jet Airways stake sale: Etihad pulls back from the bidding process; lenders get only 3 EoIs

Also read: Cash-strapped Jet Airways extends deadline for bid submissions till Aug 10