Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, October 20
From paper to plane and Ranchi to Russia—the big story of one of the new owners of Jet Airways Murari Lal Jalan brings laurels for the otherwise backward state of Jharkhand.
He hogged the headlines after winning the bid to revive Jet Airways. The lenders of beleaguered airline Jet Airways, which shut down its operations in April last year, have approved a plan submitted by United Kingdom-based Kalrock Capital and United Arab Emirates-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan to revive and operate the airline.
Jalan along with Kalrock will now control Jet Airways and is a matter of pride for Ranchi as he started business from the Jharkhand capital. At the onset of his career, he joined the family’s paper trading business in Kolkata. People in the know said Jalan worked as a trader for established manufacturers such as JK Paper and Ballarpur Industries.
In 1990, Murari Lal Jalan started Express Photo in the GEL Church Complex. In 1991-92, he went to Russia and took distribution of Konica. After staying in Russia for a few years, he came to Dubai. Over the years, he diversified into other sectors and also ventured into new regions such as Russia, the UAE, and Uzbekistan.
His elder brother Narayan Jalan still lives in Ranchi.
Though Murari Lal Jalan does not have an aviation background but members of the Kalrock management, like Manoj Madnani and John Oram, have looked at cargo and logistics while working for Polish billionaire Jan Kulczyk.
Jet Airways is likely to see the skies after one and a half years, but the lenders, who over the years put over Rs 8,000 crore into the dead airline and spent many sleepless nights over their money, aren’t really excited.
The lenders have agreed to take a 90 per cent haircut to make this deal happen. This means, if Kalrock keeps its promise, banks will get something in the vicinity of Rs 800 crore and maybe some equity.
“Ten per cent means nothing for lenders. Still, it is better than a write-off,” said experts in the industry. There is no certainty on whether Jet will fly again and whether the new promoters will be able to bring in more capital
Jet airways owed around Rs 40,000 crore to various creditors in the form of claims. Financial creditors alone claim Rs 11,344 crore from Jet. Among the banks, State Bank of India has the largest exposure of less than Rs 2,000 crore, followed by Yes Bank (around Rs 1,000 crore), Punjab National Bank (less than Rs 900 crore) and a few other banks, including ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Axis Bank.
“You get something and that’s better than nothing,” said one of the bankers.
