NCLT clears transfer of Jet Airways’ ownership to Jalan-Kalrock Consortium

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has allowed the transfer of Jet Airway’s ownership to the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium, CNBC-TV18 reported on Friday. The consortium now has six months to settle their dues and take control of the airline.

The consortium asked for directions from the bench on taking control of Jet Airways. On the other hand, the airline said that JKC had not fulfilled three of the five conditions mentioned in the resolution plan.

On January 10, JKC asked the airline monitoring committee’s authorised representative Ashish Chhawcharia not to issue any communication on behalf of the grounded carrier without the approval of all the committee members.

Chhawchharia reportedly shot off a letter to Sanjiv Kapoor, asking him to refrain from using the title of CEO as he was only a CEO-designate.

The affairs of Jet Airways are currently being looked at by a seven-member Monitoring Committee (MC). Apart from Chhawcharia, three representatives, each from the consortium and financial creditors, respectively, are on the panel.

In the letter on Tuesday, the consortium also sought a copy of the relevant minutes of the MC meetings in which the matter of CEO-designate Sanjiv Kapoor was “discussed and deliberated”.

In October 2020, the airline’s committee of creditors (CoC) approved the revival plan submitted by the consortium of Dubai-based Murari Lal Jalan and the UK’s Kalrock Capital.

After the Insolvency resolution process in June 2021, Jalan-Kalrock Consortium (JKC) was declared the winning bidder for Jet Airways.

The consortium had, in March last year, announced Kapoor’s appointment as the airline’s CEO with effect from April 4, 2022.

“Sanjiv Kapoor has been designated as the CEO of the to-be revived Jet Airways by JKC after receipt of his security clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India.

“However, until the ownership of Jet Airways is transferred to JKC, he remains CEO-designate. His mandate is to lead ‘Jet 2.0’ post-handover, and he has been focused on the preparation for that,” a JKC consortium spokesperson said in a statement.

The airline’s air operator certificate was revalidated by aviation safety regulator DGCA in May this year, following which it announced its plans to recommence operations in September 2022 but later pushed the relaunch date further.

The airline has not flown since April 2019, when it ceased all operations due to financial distress.

In late December, amid uncertainties around the recommencement of commercial operations, at least two key senior-level executives, besides some pilots and cabin crew, left the airline.

(With agency inputs)