Consortium raises $100 million to revive Jet Airways

A consortium of Flight Simulation Technique Centre, Big Charter and Imperial Capital Investments LLC has reportedly secured $100 million that will be pumped into Jet Airways in order to revive the defunct airline.

The consortium is one of the two bidders that submitted resolution plans for Jet Airways earlier this week. Lenders had shortlisted it, along with three other entities, for Jet Airways’ insolvency process back in June.

Biraja Jena, Chairman of Dubai-based Imperial Capital, told Moneycontrol that they have secured $100 million from their partners. The investment banking and wealth management firm has also roped in Middle Eastern business house Taha Group as one of the investors in the consortium.

The second consortium that has submitted a resolution plan for Jet Airways is a consortium of London-based financial services firm Kalrock Capital and entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan. They submitted their bids on July 21.

Jet Airways’ deadline for the corporate insolvency resolution process was extended by more than two months to August 21 to exclude the duration of coronavirus lockdown that began on March 25. The deadline was extended after Jet Airways’ Resolution Professional applied to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), seeking a 90-day extension for the resolution process.

India’s oldest private airline Jet Airways stopped operations on April 17, 2019 after it ran out of funds and was admitted for insolvency on June 20. It has been grounded for over one year now and the slots allotted to it have been re-allocated to other airlines.