Sanjiv Kapoor joins Saudi Arabia’s SAUDIA after quitting Jet Airways as CEO-designate, says report
Sanjiv Kapoor, who recently resigned from the post of CEO-designate of cash-strapped carrier Jet Airways, has joined Jeddah-based Saudia as the advisor to its Director General Ibrahim Al-Omar. In an article in The Economic Times, Kapoor confirmed his appointment.
SAUDIA, one of the two major airlines of Saudi Arabia, has been working on its expansion plan. On March 21, SAUDIA declared that it is working to add 25 new destinations in 2023 on the SAUDIA Group Network.
It also added that it would buy 39 wide-bodied 787 Dreamliner planes from Boeing in line with its expansion plans.
Last month, Kapoor resigned from his post of CEO-designate of Jet Airways. He joined Jet Airways as their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on April 4, 2022. Jalan-Kalrock consortium (JKC), which had taken over the resolution process of the fallen carrier Jet Airways, in an official statement confirmed the same.
Ankit Jalan, Board Member – JKC, said: “Sanjiv joined us in April 2022 to spearhead the revival of Jet Airways, and drove the business and launch plan as we prepared to re-start the commercial operations of Jet Airways. JKC is grateful to Sanjiv for his contribution to the launch plans of Jet Airways during his time with us and we wish him the very best for his future endeavors. JKC will be announcing the new CEO for Jet Airways shortly.
“The revival of Jet Airways is through a Court Approved Process, which has taken more time than originally estimated by us, but needless to say JKC is committed to the revival of Jet Airways. We are in the last leg of closing the transfer of ownership of Jet Airways to JKC, subsequent to which we will settle outstanding amounts payable to previous creditors as per our approved Resolution Plan and shall, soon thereafter, recommence the commercial operations of Jet Airways as per our re-launch plans,” Jalan added.
In January this year, the airline had announced that Kapoor would remain the CEO-designate of the company till the airline’s ownership was transferred to the consortium of Dubai-based Murari Lal Jalan and the UK’s Kalrock Capital by the lenders.
Jet Airways’ revival
Earlier this month, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium (JKC) informed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that it needs more time to repay creditors and implement the plan.
fter more than 25 years of operations, full-service airline Jet Airways was grounded on April 17, 2019, amid a severe cash crunch. The insolvency process began in June 2019 and the NCLT approved a resolution plan submitted by the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium on June 22, 2021.
As per the January 13 verdict of the NCLT, JKC was supposed to make the first tranche of the payment to lenders before May 15.
The consortium, however, filed an application before the tribunal, seeking exclusion of the period between November 16 and April 13 from the 180-day period to pay the first tranche.
After the tribunal ruled the case in favour of JKC, it was given 180 days to make payments of Rs 180 crore to the erstwhile creditors of the airline and Rs 250 crore to former employees. While May 15 is the last date to make the payments, the consortium has made no payments so far.
The NCLT has also fixed November 16 as the effective date for implementing the consortium’s resolution plan.
As per news reports, the Jet Airways lenders are expecting Rs 270 crore from JKC in the first tranche, which includes the payment to lenders, workmen, operational creditors, and the CIRP cost.
As per the Supreme Court directions, JKC has an added responsibility of paying over Rs 200 crore towards Provident Fund and gratuity to Jet employees.
According to the resolution plan, JKC had proposed a cash infusion of Rs 1,375 crore, including Rs 475 crore for payment to stakeholders.
The remaining Rs 900 crore was to be infused for capital expenditure and working capital requirements. At Rs 380 crore, the lenders took a steep haircut on their admitted claims of over Rs 7,807.7 crore under the approved resolution plan.
