Dutch auctioneer sells a large piece of Jet Airways’ in-flight equipment

A Dutch curator is holding an online auction with regard to the bankruptcy of Indian airline Jet Airways, which ceased operations on 17 April 2019.
A large part of the in-flight equipment is now up for sale: from crockery to cutlery, from trolleys to hot towels.
You have got to be quick to place your bid on the website of BVA Auctions as the auction ends at around 15:50 (UTC +2).
31/08/20 Aviation24.be

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India's FlyBig hopes to team up with revived Jet Airways

FlyBig founder and pilot-turned-entrepreneur Sanjay Mandavia is planning to pair the start-up regional carrier with a revived Jet Airways if his bid for the latter is successful, Moneycontrol has reported.

Mandavia is bidding for Jets' remaining assets in a consortium with UK-based Kalrock Capital Partners and fellow businessman Murari Lal Jalan. He plans to revive the defunct carrier on trunk routes, while FlyBig would feed into the network from smaller markets, including many government-subsidised UDAN routes.

The deadline for the selection of investors for Jet Airways was recently postponed beyond August 21 due to the ongoing pandemic.

However, COVID-19 is not throwing FlyBig off its course. The regional specialist hopes to conclude its certification with India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in time for a planned October 2020 launch, Chief Executive Srinivas Rao said.

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline has revised its launch schedule from the originally planned April 2020 date but sees no reason to delay it beyond 2020. Rao said that FlyBig, which will operate out of Indore in central India, has already secured one Avions de Transport Régional turboprop, which is awaiting delivery next month.

The airline's first ATR72-500 will be VT-FBB (msn 688), a 18.3-year-old ex-VASCO - Vietnam Air Services unit currently undergoing maintenance at Ho Chi Minh City.
31/08/20 Ch-aviation

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Jet Airways Re-Acquires Six Of Its Boeing Planes

In a surprise move, Jet Airways has re-acquired six of its 777-300ERs from lessor Fleet Ireland. The airline paid $13 million to take ownership of the six aircraft, which were impounded due to unpaid fees. With the bidding process delayed once again, it’s unclear what Jet will do with these planes.

The immediate aftermath of Jet Airways’ grounding saw lessors from around the globe quickly move in to take back their aircraft. However, a small number of aircraft were still owned by Jet or were on a financial lease (wherein the airline gets to take ownership of the plane once payments are made).

In late July, Jet Airways has finally managed to raise enough funds to take possession of financial leased aircraft. The airline recently sold off a number of its assets, such as its office in Mumbai, to raise funds. Jet has used these funds to re-acquire the six aircraft, according to The Hindu BusinessLine.
Jet Airways made a $13 million “bullet payment,” a one-time payment to clear all dues, to Fleet Ireland. With this, it received the ownership of the six 777s as well as the plane’s engines, which had been removed. According to Live From A Lounge, these planes had few outstanding payments, allowing Jet to take back all six with a relatively small payment.

While it is a positive sign that Jet Airways is taking back aircraft, it’s unclear what the airline can do with these planes. All of Jet’s remaining planes have been sitting on the ground for over a year, with possibly little maintenance. This means it could cost millions to make the aircraft airworthy once again.

Until Jet Airways finds a buyer or is liquidated, it’s unlikely the 777s are going anywhere. In May, the carrier offered its 777s for repatriation missions, but it quickly became clear this plan was unfeasible.
30/08/20 Pranjal Pande/Simple Flying

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YES Bank tightens noose around Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal

Yes Bank, under a new management, has turned up the heat on Naresh Goyal, the founder of Jet Airways.
The private sector lender has initiated the process to categorise Goyal and his wife Anita as `wilful defaulters’. A ‘wilful defaulter’ tag by banks may stain the reputation of persons and restrict their ability to borrow and hold board positions in companies.
 Yes Bank recently communicated this to the members of the promoter family of Jet Airways --- India’s oldest private sector airline which stopped operations in 2019 after it ran out of cash. Goyals, it’s believed, have responsed to Yes, indicating that they were not involved in the borrowings by the airline, sources told ET. Responding to a text message from ET, Yes Bank CEO Prashant Kumar said the bank does not comment on specic accounts.
 The grounded airline owes more than Rs8500 crore to lenders. Yes, with exposure of Rs 550 crore to Jet, belongs to the consortium of lenders led by State Bank ofIndia (SBI). In June 2019, the country’s bankruptcy court admitted an insolvency petition led by SBI, paving the way for a resolution process for the troubled company. 
"Categorising someone as 'wilful defaulter' is largely an administrative decision by banks and not a direct part of statute. However, it receives indirect statutory support as directions on wilful defaulter were issued under the Banking Regulation Act. It depends on whether a company despite having a surplus chose to use the money for some other purpose instead of repaying lenders..It may not always be a fair stand but that is the settled position in India. Besides other restrictions, a promoter or shareholder who is nally declared as wilful defaulter by banks cannot oer or participate in any resolution plan for the borrowing company," said M.R.Umarji, former ED, Reserve bank of India. However, saddled with claims from operational creditors and employees, bankers have almost lost hope in revival of the company. 30/08/20 Sugta Ghosh/Economic Times

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Jet Airways soar 5% as creditors committee set to meet today

Private carrier Jet Airways continued to witness buying spree on exchanges, as the airline's committee of creditors (COC) are set to meet on Tuesday. Many are eyeing extension in the deadline for insolvency resolution process due to Covid-19 pandemic.

On Sensex, the airline's stock has touched the upper circuit limit of Rs30.35 per piece up 5%. However, the stock has corrected and was trading at Rs29.30 per piece up 1.21% at around 12.05 pm.

In its exchange filing, Jet Airways said, "We wish to inform that the Fourteenth Meeting of Committee of Creditors (CoC) of Jet Airways (India) Limited is scheduled to be held on August 25, 2020, at 11:30 AM IST, for which notice to the members of the CoC has been sent
on August 22, 2020."

Jet Airways had earlier extended the deadline for completion of insolvency process to August 21. However, the pandemic which resulted in nationwide lockdown has slowed down the process.

Although, the airline's creditors have not given any fresh deadline, however, media reports claimed that the extension in deadline is possibility ahead.

In the last creditors meet, Jet Airways announced the payment of $13M to the lessors for the acquisition of six aircraft involving Boeing along with engines. This came as good news for the airline whose aircraft has been grounded since last year April due to mounting debt.

Also, the airline had already intimated exchanges earlier in July that, according to the invitation of expression of interest and resolution plans, the Resolution Professional has received resolution plans for the airline from two Prospective Resolution Applicants, which shall be placed before the Committee of Creditors for its consideration.
25/08/20 IIFL

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Jet Airways insolvency process likely to be extended

The resolution plans received from two bidders will be placed before the lenders, and the plan which secures 66 per cent of votes from the lenders committee will be submitted for approval from the National Company Law Tribunal bench, announced the resolution professional in a letter to employees of Jet Airways.
The letter from Ashish Chhawchharia, the resolution professional from Grant Thornton Advisory, came on the eve of the final deadline for the insolvency proceedings before the NLCT. Though his letter did not specifically mention it, it hinted that the insolvency proceedings would be extended as Committee of Creditors (CoC) continued to evaluate the feasibility of two resolution plans received from prospective bidders.
“Once this assessment is complete, the CoC shall vote on the resolution plans, which, in their opinion, would be in the best interest of the Company and all its stakeholders. For any resolution plan to be considered approved, it will need to secure the votes of at least 66 per cent of the CoC members (in value terms),” Chhawchharia said in his letter.
He said after the NCLT bench approves the selected resolution plan, the control of the Jet Airways (India) Ltd will be handed over to the successful bidder as per the resolution plan, and the winning consortium will then be responsible for implementing the approved business and revival plan.
“All the creditors/stakeholders including employees/workmen shall be paid strictly in accordance with the terms and timelines laid down in the approved resolution plan and extant laws in this regard,” the letter said, stating that it is difficult to predict when the corporate insolvency resolution process will be over.
Jet Airways, which stopped commercial operations on April 18, 2019, went into insolvency under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code on June 20, 2019 after the petition filed by lead lender State Bank of India was approved by the Mumbai bench of the NCLT.
21/08/20 Satish Nandagaonkar/Mumbai Mirror

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Deadline for Jet Airways insolvency process extended again, even as banks evaluate bids

Even as banks evaluate the resolution plans submitted by two suitors for Jet Airways, the insolvency process may go beyond the August 21 deadline, going by the update given by the resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia.

In a statement on August 20, Chhawchharia said the Committee of Creditors, consisting of Jet Airways lenders, are engaging with the two suitors to assess the feasibility and viability of their respective plans for the airline.
"The process has been extended due to the lockdown restrictions in Mumbai," said a senior executive.

The resolution professional in his statement didn't mention till when the process has been extended.

The airline, which had suspended operations in April 2019, had received two bids on July 21. The first consortium was of Flight Simulation Technique Centre Pvt Ltd, Big Charter Pvt Ltd, and Imperial Capital Investments LLC. Both FSTC and Big Charter are led by aviator-turned-entrepreneur Sanjay Mandavia. Imperial Capital is an investment banking and wealth management company based in Dubai.

The second bid was from the consortium of London-based financial services firm Kalrock Capital and entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan.

"Once this assessment is complete, the CoC shall vote on the resolution plans... For any plan to be considered approved, it will need to secure the votes of at least 60 percent of the CoC members," the resolution professional said.
20/08/20 Moneycontrol.com

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Jet Airways sells property, acquires aircraft title in insolvency

AZB & Partners and De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek advised the resolution professional managing the insolvency of Jet Airways when the airline sold two floors of a Mumbai building to a company controlled by Brookfield Asset Management. Khaitan & Co advised Brookfield.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had given the go-ahead for the ₹4.9 billion (US$65 million) sale after both HDFC, to which Jet Airways had mortgaged the premises, and the committee of creditors of Jet Airways had approved it. Wadia Ghandy advised HDFC, and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas advised the committee of creditors.

Jet Airways then made a US$13 million bullet payment to the US Exim Bank to acquire title to six Boeing 777 aircraft. Vedder Price advised the bank.

The real estate sale was completed on 10 July, and the acquisition of title to the aircraft, which the company said would add about US$200 million to the value of its assets, was completed on 27 July.

AZB & Partners said this was the first transaction under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) where a material asset was sold during the IBC process outside the normal course of business, with the approval of the NCLT.
17/08/20 India Business Law Journal

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