Mumbai: State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Wednesday said any decision to provide emergency funds to cash-strapped Jet Airways will be taken collectively by the lenders and not on a standalone basis.
The assertion comes in the backdrop of media reports that PNB had approved Rs 2,050 crore of emergency funding to Jet Airways, for which lenders are considering a resolution plan under Project Sashakt. In a filing to exchanges, Jet Airways had earlier clarified it has not received any fresh loan from PNB. “No, we are going (on decision to lend further to Jet Airways) collectively.
The resolution will come with the participation of the stakeholders and we are working on it,” the bank’s MD and CEO, Sunil Mehta, told reporters when asked whether the lender was considering fresh funds to the loss-making Carrier on a standalone basis. He was speaking at the sidelines of the Ficci-IBA event here on Thursday.
Any emergency funding to Jet Airways will be part of the resolution package, he said. Mehta said the resolution plan for the airline is under deliberation at the joint lender forum and the lead banker, State Bank of India, is in discussion with various stake holders.
The acute liquidity crunch has forced it to ground aircraft, shut down stations and delay salary payments to its pilots and engineers along with other senior staff. It has been looking at various ways to raise funds. On March 8, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal wrote to Etihad Airways Group CEO Tony Douglas seeking an urgent funding of Rs 750 crore under an MoU signed between various stakeholders.
