The Committee of Creditors (CoC) of grounded airline Jet Airways told the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that they may choose not to pursue the appeal against the transfer of the airline's ownership to Jalan Kalrock Consortium if it pays Rs 350 crore towards fulfilling condition precedents.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had laid down condition precedents in its January order for Jalan Kalrock Consortium to fulfil the transfer of the airline's ownership. It is the contention of the CoC that the consortium has not fulfilled any such conditions.
The NCLAT asked CoC to file an affidavit detailing their contentions, and the case is likely to come up for hearing on August 18.
On July 28, the consortium told NCLAT that the CoC is not permitting them to commence operations even though they had obtained all the requisite permissions from the government.
On July 10, the CoC told the Supreme Court the airline be wound up as the resolution plan approved by the NCLT was not workable.
A CoC is formed once a company is admitted to insolvency. It is a body of financial creditors that represents the interest of stakeholders. The voting percentage in the committee is proportional to the amount a financial institution has lent to the company in insolvency.
On July 5, the CoC told the court it had spent Rs 470 crore since the implementation of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), without getting any return on investment. The creditors said they were incurring Rs 23 crore in expenses every month.
The Jet Airways Workmen Association agreed with the CoC and told the court they had not been paid their dues.
In May 2023, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) granted Jalan Kalrock Consortium, which emerged as a successful bidder to take over Jet Airways, more time to make payments to the State Bank of India (SBI).
While the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the transfer to Jalan Kalrock in January, the decision was challenged in NCLAT, which ruled in favour of the consortium on March 3, 2023.
Hence, Jalan Kalrock was entitled to exclude November 16, 2022, to March 3, 2023, during which the ownership hearing was on, to comply with the payment deadline.
On January 13, NCLT allowed the transfer of the beleaguered airline to the consortium led by London-based Kalrock Capital and UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan.
The lenders approached the NCLAT, opposing the ownership transfer, saying the consortium had not fulfilled its obligations.
Jet Airways was grounded in April 2019 over growing losses and a debt of about Rs 8,000 crore. In October 2020, the airline's Committee of Creditors (CoC) approved the revival plan submitted by the Jalan-Kalrock consortium.
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