BJP leader MP Subramanian Swamy lashed out at Naresh Goyal on Friday for the Jet Airways’ crisis, accusing the airline's founder of deliberately structuring the deal with Etihad to 'get out' of the cash-starved airline.
In 2013, Swamy had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the Jet-Etihad deal. "I was against the Jet-Etihad deal to begin with. I have been in favour of allowing private parties competition, provided they are only in terms of dominant shareholding in the hands of Indians,” he said, adding that it was him who initiated the process as the commerce minister in 1991.
"Today I feel that this was a deliberate act of Naresh Goyal. The way he structured the Etihad deal shows that he really wanted to get out of it," Swamy said.
Once India's largest private airline, Jet halted all flight operations indefinitely last week after lenders led by State Bank of India(SBI) declined to extend more funds to keep the carrier going.
The lenders consortium of Jet Airways is currently in the process of selling the airline to recover their dues of over Rs 8,400 crore. SBI Caps, the merchant banking arm of SBI, is currently shortlisting the investors for submitting their financial proposal by April-end.
Abu Dhabi based Etihad Airways has concluded the due-diligence process before it places its financial bid for acquiring Jet Airways. The other two potential bidders- TPG Capital and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) have also started their respective processes and are expected to bid jointly with Etihad.
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