Jet's office in Mumbai's BKC put up for sale, reserve price Rs 490 cr

Property has about 169,983 sq ft saleable area; auction on June 26, EMD set at Rs 25 cr

As a part of the resolution process, the Jet Airways office in Bandra Kurla Complex area of Mumbai has been put up for sale by the resolution professional (RP) of the insolvent company. Lenders to the beleaguered airline company in a meeting held in April had decided to sell the immovable properties of the airline company and distribute the proceeds. The bankruptcy tribunal on June 11 approved this proposal of the lenders.

The RP has put out an auction notice and bid criteria for the said property. The reserve price for the property has been kept at Rs 490 crore and the auction will take place on June 26. Intending bidders have to pay an earnest money deposit of Rs 25 crore, which will be refunded to unsuccessful bidders.

The property put up for sale has approximately 169,983 sq ft saleable area on the third and fourth floors of the building known as “Jet Airways Godrej BKC”.

Mortgage lender HDFC has a security interest over the same property as Jet Airways had borrowed more than Rs 400 crore from the lender as term loan keeping the property as collateral, which it has failed to repay. Interestingly, the mortgage lender in May 2019, put up the same property for sale due to failure on the part of the airline company to repay the debt. This was prior to Jet being brought under insolvency proceedings. Jet was admitted under insolvency proceedings in June 2019.

As far as the resolution process is concerned, four of the 12 expressions of interest (EoIs) submitted for Jet Airways in the fourth round have made the cut, based on the bid criteria set by lenders and the resolution professional’s team. According to people in the know, UK-based Kalrock Capital, Canadian entrepreneur Sivakumar Rasiah, Abu Dhabi-based Imperial Capital Investments, and Alpha Aviation have been shortlisted.

This is a provisional list, and the final one set was supposed to be issued on June 10. But so far, the final list has not been issued by the RP. Post the issuance of final list, shortlisted entities will then be asked to come up with a resolution plan by July 10. The RP will present the resolution plan, if any, to the adjudicating authority on July 23.

As of March, over 20,000 claims had been made totaling Rs 37,000 crore. Workmen and employees have claimed more than Rs 1,400 crore, while financial creditors have claimed over Rs 11,000 crore from the defunct airline.