Turbo Aviation shows interest in Jet Airways

Hyderabad-based Turbo Aviation Private Limited is the latest to express interest for acquiring the defunct Jet Airways in the ongoing corporate insolvency resolution process, said three persons in the know.

Ashish Chhawchharia, the appointed resolution professional of Jet Airways, had recently informed the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on December 17 that two entities had shown early interest to invest in in the grounded airline.

Turbo Aviation Private Ltd has emerged as one of those entities. Earlier this week, Turbo Aviation Pvt. Ltd had firmed up an investment of about 100 million pounds from a UK based Group. Turbo Aviation had announced its plans to launch a new low-cost airline ‘TruStar’ by mid 2020.

One of the persons close to the development said "The Indian company reached out to the RP about six days ago. The RP is yet to receive any formal request from it."

Turbo is founded by V. Umesh, who was associated with no frills airliner TruJet initially. When BusinesLine reached out to Umesh, he refused to comment on the same. Another person associated with Turbo said that the company is "Evaluating the possibilities for the same. However, nothing is formulated yet."

The third person said that it was important to verify all the KYC documents, and other proof. "Yes, there has been an early interest, however, we have burnt our fingers with several entities who were unable to present proof of business and deposit money. Hence, it's better not to take this early interest at face value."

The NCLT on December 20 extended the CIRP process for the by another 90 days after the 180 day extension was over. So far, only Synergy, which had submitted their KYC, had expressed formal interest in the grounded Jet Airways.

Meanwhile, the Committee of Creditors (CoC) on Saturday approved the extension for a fresh round of Expression of Interest (EoI).

According to a notice on the Jet Airways website, potential bidders can express their interest to acquire a stake in the defunct airline by January 6. Thereafter, the bidders are supposed to submit a resolution plan by February 8.