Lenders To Take Jet Airways To Bankruptcy Court; Shares Dive To New All-Time Low

Lenders consortium, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), on Monday decided to take Jet Airways to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), seeking a resolution for the cash-strapped airline under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The decision was taken at their meeting on Monday, after failing to come up with a revival plan in over five months.

"Lenders have decided to seek resolution under IBC since only a conditional bid was received and requirement of the Investor for SEBI exemptions and resolution of all creditors is possible under IBC. Lenders led by State Bank of India have been taking efforts to find a resolution for Jet Airways outside IBC but in view of the above, lenders have decided to seek a resolution within the IBC process," the SBI said in a statement.

Jet Airways stopped its services on 17 April and is burdened with outstanding loans worth Rs 8,500 crore and liabilities worth Rs 25,000 crore. It ran out of cash to run daily operations and also failed to raise interim loans from banks.

The lenders made several attempts to revive the airline. Talks were held with Etihad and the Hinduja Group, the two bidders interested, but there were no formal proposals made.

The NCLT is scheduled to hear the insolvency petitions of the operational creditors for the recovery of dues by 20 June, a Moneycontrol report said.

Shares of Jet Airways tanked by a massive 53 percent on Tuesday to a new all-time low of Rs 31.65 apiece on NSE.