The consortium of banks, led by State Bank of India (SBI), expects clarity to emerge on final resolution of the debt-laden Jet Airways in a week’s time.

A senior SBI official said lenders are keen that the airline continues to be operational. Towards this end, a comprehensive resolution plan is being put together.

The financially-stressed airline has loans of more than ₹8,400 crore, with SBI being its biggest lender. The exposure of India’s largest bank is said to be close to ₹2,000 crore. Due to financial crunch, the private sector carrier has delayed salaries to pilots, senior staff and engineers, including payments to its lessors and lenders for the past several months.

In mid-January, the airline said pursuant to a delay in payment of interest and principal instalment due to the consortium of Indian banks, led by SBI, on December 31, 2018, by the company, “SBI in consultation with the other members of the consortium and other stakeholders has been working on a comprehensive resolution plan towards a turnaround of the company for its sustained growth and restoration of financial health.”

The said resolution plan, inter alia, contemplates various options on the debt-equity mix, proportion of equity infusion by the various stakeholders, and the consequent change in the composition of the company’s board of directors.

Meanwhile, SBI, on Friday launched ‘YONO Cash’ on its mobile-banking platform ‘YONO SBI’ for cardless withdrawal of cash at more than 16,500 SBI ATMs across the country. The ATMs enabled for this service will also be termed YONO Cash Point, the bank said.

“Customers can initiate the cash withdrawal process on the YONO app and set a six-digit YONO cash pin for the transaction. They will also get a six-digit reference number for the transaction on their registered mobile number via SMS. The cash withdrawal has to be completed within the next 30 minutes at the nearest YONO Cash point using both PIN and the reference number received,” said Rajnish Kumar, Chairman.

comment COMMENT NOW