Jet Airways takeover: Synergy, the only suitor, yet to find Indian partner

Efforts to breathe new life into the grounded Jet Airways hit a roadblock on Wednesday after talks between the Synergy Group and the Central government proved inconclusive. While Synergy, a Brazil-based enterprise owned by German Efromovich, wanted the airport slots previously owned by Jet Airways to be made available to it, the Centre wanted the conglomerate to first sort out its foreign direct investment issues.

It may be noted that Synergy, which has a majority stake in Avianca, the South American airline, is yet to find an Indian partner.

According to existing FDI regulations, a foreign airline company can only invest up to 49 per cent in Jet Airways. But Synergy, being a conglomerate, has a window of investing up to 74 per cent, but finding an Indian partner to invest the rest is an issue. The Synergy Group, apparently, has told the government that it is working towards finding one.

In response, the government said that re-allotting the slots owned by Jet Airways would not be an issue post March 2020. The Jet Airways slots have been allotted to other operators till then.

Media reports indicate that Synergy as well as the resolution professional for Jet are in talks with a couple of Indian entities for partnership. The Synergy team, reports said, has also met the lenders' consortium led by the State Bank of India, to which Jet Airways owes more that Rs 8,000 crore. Synergy wants the lenders to bring down the outstanding amount. It plans to run Jet Airways as a much-trimmed operation.

Efromovich, who was recently removed from the Avianca board following a loan infringement, is credited with turning around the loss-making Avianca, which he took over in 2004, making it the second-largest airline in South America.