Jet Air creditors to ask curt to extend liquidation deadline

Creditors of Jet Airways India Ltd. are seeking court action to save the bankrupt carrier from liquidation as a key deadline looms.

Lenders to Mumbai-based Jet Airways plan to request an Indian court extend a mid-March deadline for creditors to agree on a resolution plan or allow the carrier go into liquidation, said people familiar with the matter. Potential buyers of the airline are also seeking more time to prepare bids for the company.

Once India’s largest carrier by passengers, Jet Airway’s fall into bankruptcy last year is reflective of the country’s troubled aviation industry, where several players are struggling under piles of debt and cut-throat profit margins. While the bidding deadline for the company has been extended before, the airline could be forced into liquidation if there’s a further delay in bids by suitors and the mid-March date isn’t met, without court action.

Bolstering the case for a court-mandated extension is the entrant of an unidentified third shortlisted bidder to rival Synergy Group Corp. and Prudent ARC Ltd., said one of the people, asking not to be named as the matter is private. The three potential buyers have asked for more time to undertake due diligence and solidify bidding groups and won’t be able to bid by the March 9 deadline, the people said.

Ashish Chhawchharia, the court-appointed resolution professional overseeing Jet Airways’ bankruptcy, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Calls to the office phone number of German Efromovich, founder of Synergy Group, weren’t immediately unanswered outside of business hours. A spokesman for Prudent ARC declined to comment.