Naresh Goyal’s reign at Jet Airways, the company he founded 25 years ago, ended on Monday as he stepped down as chairman of the board and transferred control to the lenders. The consortium of lenders, led by the State Bank of India, will now own a 50 per cent stake in the airline, while Goyal’s stake would be halved to 25.5 per cent. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways would shed its shareholding to 12 per cent from 24 per cent earlier.
The Jet board on Monday decided to allot 114 million shares to the lenders upon conversion of one rupee of its outstanding Rs 8,000-odd-crore debt and accepted the resignation of Goyal, his wife Anita and Etihad representative Kevin Knight. While former bureaucrat Ashok Chawla, who’s an independent director at Jet, chaired the board as an interim arrangement, Goyal joined the meeting through a video-conference from London, sources said.
