Mumbai: The lenders to the bankrupt Jet Airways Monday made a presentation to the South American conglomerate Synergy Group, which has reportedly emerged as sole potential buyer of the airline, according to a source.
After the August 10 deadline, Synergy Group Corp, which owns majority stake in Colombian carrier Avianca Holdings, had reportedly evinced interest in the airline, which had already received expressions of interest (EoIs) (which were subsequently withdrawn) from energy baron Anil Agarwal's family trust-backed Volcan Investments, Russian Fund Treasury RA Partners and the Panama-based Avantulo Group.
"The lenders of Jet Airways Monday made a presentation to the Synergy Group, which is likely to invest in the carrier. They shared information about the airline's assets, manpower, liabilities, among others," a source told PTI.
The source also said the exercise is expected to stretch to Tuesday.
When contacted, Antonio Guizzetti, the president of the Washington-based Guizzetti & Associates, which is the legal adviser to the Synergy Group, said he was not aware of the developments.
The airline owes over ₹8,500 crore, excluding interest, and other penal charges, to a clutch of lenders led by the State Bank.
The lenders consortium, which owns 51%, had on June 17 sent the airline to the NCLT as they could not find a buyer. Following this, the bankruptcy tribunal appointed Ashish Chhawchharia of Grant Thornton as the resolution professional to manage the affairs of the crippled airline.
The RP had in late July floated EoIs for the airline with the first deadline of August 3 which was extended to August 1o and another EoI with August 31 deadline.
Naresh Goyal, who is under ED probe for alleged money laundering charges, founded Jet Airways over 25 year ago and it stopped flying on April 17.
In the second round of submission of EoIs, which closed on August 10, the lenders had received interest from Volcan Investments, RA Partners and Avantulo Group. However, Volcan opted out of the race a day after publicly announcing its interest in the carrier.
It can be noted Etihad Airways, which owns 24 percent stake in Jet, did not submit its bids.
Jet Airways has liabilities over ₹36,000 crore, including over ₹10,000 crore in vendor dues, ₹8,500 crore along with interest owed to lenders, over ₹3,000 crore in salary dues, and more than ₹13,500 crore in accumulated losses over the past three years.
Early July the RP had received claims worth over ₹26,500 crore as of July 4, including over ₹200 crore from founder Naresh Goyal, submitted by the holding company of the airline JetAir, but was rejected. PTI IAS HV SM BEN BEN BEN
