"Bhaisahab, let's forget the past"

Mumbai: For Jet Airways and Air Sahara, April would have been the cruellest month. Lawyers on both sides had been blowing hot and cold. The arbitration process would start; it would be short but bitter. Walking into a legal labyrinth with falling marketshare and a bleeding balance sheet was unsettling for even someone as pugnacious as Naresh Goyal. And in the third week of March, he decided that a handshake was better than an arm-wrestling match.
He called the Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy and addressed him with the Hindi honorific Bhaisahab, as he has for over a decade. “Namaste Bhaisahab, kaise hain aap? Why don’t we forget the past and make a fresh start,” he said. The ice melted and the passage to the deal became clear.
Naresh Goyal’s call initiated the process of burying the hatchet for what can arguably rank as one of the biggest U-turns in Indian corporate history. Jet had effectively walked away from a Rs 2,300-crore deal to acquire a loss-making airline and then come back to complete the transaction, all in a span of nine months.
After the first step was taken, the fact that both airlines pushed for a settlement is not unusual as both had more to gain by this than continuing with the arbitration process.
14/04/07 Cuckoo Paul/Economic Times

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Categories: Air Sahara Apr 2007, Jet Airways Apr 2007