On deadline day, Etihad Airways has finally submitted a binding bid for Jet Airways under a sale process being conducted by State Bank of India (SBI), a person directly familiar with the matter told BloombergQuint on Friday, 10 May.
Earlier, Jet had also received three unsolicited bids, including one from its employees, this person said.
The report said that the lending consortium for the embattled airlines will now meet in the coming week to discuss the bids received.
Etihad already owns 24 percent stake in Jet Airways and had previously pulled out of a restructuring plan since the lending consortium did not approve the conditions it has placed.
Earlier in the day, State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar had said that the lenders have received three "unsolicited" bids for Jet Airways, keeping the hopes for the revival of the grounded carrier alive, as per PTI
The consortium of 26 lenders, led by State Bank which now owns 51 percent in the airline, had invited expressions of interest (EoIs) between 8 and 12 April and had received four preliminary bids.
Friday is the last day to submit financial bids and media reports were initially claiming that none of the four bidders – private equity firms IndiGo Partners and TPG, and Jet's strategic partner Etihad and the country's sovereign wealth fund NIIF – were likely to submit a financial bid.
"Two unsolicited bidders have submitted EoI for Jet and we are expecting one more bid by the end of the day," Kumar told reporters at the earnings conference in Mumbai.
The lenders are offering 31.2-75 percent stake in the company on a fully diluted basis. Currently, the airline owes Rs 8,000 crore to the lenders.
Jet Airways stopped operations on 17 April due to acute financial distress.
Jet founder Naresh Goyal, who was forced to step down from the airline on 25 March as part of a deal with lenders, had earlier partnered with Future Trend Capital to submit a bid for investing in the airline. But later he reportedly withdrew the offer, as others threatened to walk away.
(Published in arrangement with BloombergQuint, PTI)
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