Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, who was forced to step down as chairman recently, has pulled out of the race to regain control of the airline. His consortium partner Future Trends Capital has also withdrawn from the process, it is learnt. Goyal was among the five entities to have submitted an expression of interest (EoI) to buy up to a 75 per cent stake in Jet as part of a lenders-led resolution plan to rescue the airline from going under.
While the cash-starved airline hasn’t shut down operations yet, CEO Vinay Dube on Tuesday sought Rs 400 crore from the lenders immediately, warning that any delay in funding would ground the airline. Initially, the lenders’ consortium, led by State Bank of India, had committed Rs 1,500-crore in emergency funding to Jet, and then the figure was lowered to Rs 1,000 crore. Due to lack of consensus among the lenders, emergency funding has been negligible so far and it has come in very small tranches.
