After Naresh Goyal steps down, who will commandeer Jet Airways?

Naresh Goyal (Image: Reuters)

Amid news of Jet Airways' founder Naresh Goyal agreeing to step down as Chairman of the airline's board, one wonders what is in for the cash-strapped airline in such an event.

At present, Goyal owns a 51 percent stake in Jet Airways, while Etihad holds 24 percent.

Even though Goyal steps down from Jet's board, sources had told Moneycontrol that his son Nivaan Goyal could get a board position. Nivaan had joined Jet Airways in 2011 as a trainee. Naresh Goyal's wife, Anita Goyal, is a Director and part of the airline's board.

Nivaan's position in the board, however, would most likely be non-executive and he may have limited say when compared to Goyal, who as Executive Chairman, calling all the shots at Jet Airways. This raises doubts as to who will be the new face of the company after Goyal, who built India's first private airline, cedes control of his empire.

Read: More trouble: Jet Airways, on standalone basis, loses rank 2 to SpiceJet in aviation market

According to the resolution plan, 114 million fresh shares will be allotted. If the plan goes through, the banks will emerge as the biggest shareholders. In such an event, the banks may require someone's help to run the airline as lenders may not necessarily know how to make the airline profitable in the long run.

One of the hurdles, however, that lie on the road to the resolution plan is the numbers of conditions put forth by Etihad. Apart from Etihad's condition asking Goyal to step down from the board, it has asked the lenders to first clear the resolution plan and act on it before it brings in any money.

There are also speculations that Naresh and Etihad may put in more money to raise their stakes in the airline after the resolution plan kicks off. While these are still speculation, Etihad may have to look for an Indian partner to own a majority stake -- 51 percent -- in Jet as FDI rules allow it to buy just 49 percent stake.

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Earlier, Vinay Dube, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jet Airways, said during the Q3 FY19 earnings call that the company "will continue with its structure of a professionally run management, reporting to the Board of Directors."

Dube said the promoter will be the Chairman of the Board. However, if Goyal steps down, we don't know who will be the new promoter yet.

In either of these scenarios, it is too early to say who will be the new face of Jet Airways after Goyal.

The airline has a debt of over Rs 8,000 crore and has repayments of Rs 1,700 crore due by end of March. Lack of liquidity has forced Jet to ground one-third of its fleet for non-payment to lessors and cancel over 300 flights in February and March to rework its network to save costs.