Mumbai: The Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways, which is facing headwinds amid cash-crunch and under regulatory probes, has said it has been evaluating various funding options to meet liquidity requirements on priority.
The second largest domestic airline by market share also said it has not at any time defaulted on its payment obligations with the lenders who have issued certificates to this extent as well on a regular basis.
Jet Airways, which is grappling with financial woes, had last week deferred announcement of its financial results for the June quarter and is yet to announce a date.
The trouble comes five years after it co-boarded Etihad Airways with a 24 per cent stake amidst a raging financial crisis then.
The airline and some credit rating agencies have come under regulatory scanner for alleged lapses in timely disclosure of default risk of loans worth Rs 11,000 crore taken from state-owned as well as private sector banks.
“We have been evaluating various funding options to meet the liquidity requirements on priority. Our relationship with strategic partner Etihad Airways is very strong and continues to grow further,” it said in a statement to PTI after stock exchanges sought clarification.
Last Friday, Rajnish Kumar, the chairman of SBI, which is key lender to the airline, had said that the Jet account was in the watch-list.
“We wish to reiterate that all our accounts with lenders are ‘standard’ and there is no overdue in any of our accounts. There have been no delays in discharging any of our loan obligations to any of the lenders,” the airline said.
Reports said the airline had initiated a formal stake sale process to mop up $300-400 million from global private equity players.