Jet Airways’founder and chairman Naresh Goyal and his wife will be exiting the Airline’s board of directors. Goyal will also be reducing his stake from 51 per cent to 25.5 per cent and also giving up his position as chairman.
The Airline, which had been in financial doldrums will now be rescued by lenders — State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) — who will be funding the process of bringing the operations back to normal, by providing Rs1,500 crore.
Jet Airways will be issuing 11.4 crore shares of Re1 each to the group of lenders, to convert the outstanding debt.
Two nominee directors will also be inducted by the Airline to represent the lenders.
An interim management committee will be managing and monitoring the operations of Jet Airways and the cash flow on a daily basis.
Jet Airways’ estimated debt is about Rs 8,000 crore, and its pilots, engineers and crew have not been paid their salaries since the beginning of this year.
Almost a 100 Jet pilots are said to have been poached by IndiGo. With this new turn of events, the dissatisfied employees are naturally even more uncertain about the future than ever. It is up to the outgoing chairman to address them and allay their fears. The CEO and other leaders will have to assure the staff of normalcy and stability.
