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

Jet Airways' lenders have 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.

Of the three entities which submitted their bids to the banks, two are financial players and the third one is in the global aviation space. Panama-based Avantulo Group is one of the three companies which 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.

Also Read: Jet Airways crisis: Resolution professional invites bids by August 3 to sell airline's assets

Hinduja group which had shown interest earlier to bid for Jet also did not come forward this time, the report said.  These three EoIs will be examined by resolution professional (RP) Ashish Chhawchharia to verify their eligibility.

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

The lead banker to the airline State Bank of India has approved Rs 10 crore interim funding and other banks are also in the process of approving the same, bankers had said.

The lenders, who had been owning the airline since March 25 with 51 per cent stake, had on June 17 decided to take the airline, which stopped flying on April 17, to the NCLT as they could not find a buyer.

Also Read: Govt to launch portal to facilitate jobs for Jet Airways employees

Early July, the RP had said he had received claims worth over Rs 25,500 crore as of July 4, including over Rs 200 crore from founder Naresh Goyal, submitted by the holding company of the airline JetAir, but was rejected.

State Bank has made a claim of Rs 1,644 crore, including cash credit inclusive of interest, term loans and bank guarantees.

Yes Bank has claimed Rs 1,084 crore, followed by PNB's Rs 963 crore and IDBI Bank's Rs 594 crore.

Also Read: Jet Airways RP gets claims worth Rs 24,887 crore; rejects Rs 229 crore claim from Naresh Goyal's firm

Operational creditors excluding workmen and employees have made a claim of Rs 12,372 crore, with the entire amount being under verification, while the workmen and employees have made a claim of Rs 443 crore which is also under verification.

Apart from this, authorized representatives of workmen and employees have made 11,965 claims of Rs 735 crore, the RP said, adding other creditors, including other financial creditors and operational creditors, have made 121 claims amounting to Rs 1,105 crore.

Also Read: Jet Airways bidding process: Etihad shows interest in stake sale, SBI gets two more unsolicited bids

(With inputs from agency)