Talks with Jet in initial stages, no offer yet: Tata
Mumbai, Nov. 16: Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group companies, on Friday confirmed its interest in acquiring Jet Airways but said no concrete “proposal” has been made by the group so far.
The Tatas, which already run two carriers — the fullservice Vistara in a joint venture with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and AirAsia India in a similar arrangement with Malaysian carrier Air Asia — have widely speculated to be planning to acquire Naresh Goyalcontrolled airline with it’s the Singaporean partner.
“Over the last few days, there has been growing speculation about Tata’s interest in Jet Airways. We would like to clarify that any such discussions (to acquire Jet Airways) have been preliminary and no proposal has been made,” Tata Sons said in a statement after a marathon fivehour board meeting at the headquarters here.
Addressing the analysts at the post-earnings concall, earlier this week, Jet Airways’ deputy chief executive and chief financial officer Amit Agarwal had admitted that the airline was in talks with “multiple interested parties” for fund infusion as well as stake in its loyalty programme Jet Privilege.
BesidesMr Goyal, who along with his family owns 51 per cent stake in the company, Gulf carrier Etihad Airways owns 24 per cent in the airline which has been delaying salaries and payments to vendors for many months.
There are also rumours that the Tatas are being nudged by government. However, government has denied that it is brokering the deal or asked has bankers to take a haircut on Jet debt to sweeten the deal.