Page 11 - Banking Finance August 2019

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NEWS
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NEWS

Forex reserve records all- Jet employee consortium set to bid
time high A Jet Airways employee consortium and AdiGroup has recently declared a part-
nership to bid for 75% of the airline through the NCLT pro-
As per the RBI data, India’s foreign cess. After the Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law
exchange re- Tribunal (NCLT) admitted an insolvency petition filed by the
serve has re- SBI on behalf of 26 lenders, the debt-laden company be-
corded a life- came the first domestic airliner to go into bankruptcy.
time high of
USD 426.42 The airline owes Rs 8,500 crore to banks and around Rs 25,000 crore in arrears
billion in the to vendors, lessors and employees. "Jet Airways employee consortium and
week to June 21, led by dollar pur- AdiGroup are delighted to announce their partnership to bid for acquisition of
75 per cent of Jet Airways through NCLT process. This is a new dawn in the his-
chase by RBI.
tory of India Aviation of operating an airline through Employee Initiative
The rise in reserves was on account programme where every single employee of Jet Airways will become an owner
of increase in foreign currency asset, of the airline. It truly embodies prime minister's dream 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas
which is a major component of the Sabka Vishwas',” a joint statement from the consortium and the AdiGroup said.
overall foreign exchange reserves.
During a press conference, captain Ashwani Tyagi, one of Jet's senior-most pi-
In the reporting week, foreign cur- lots said the airlines was like a family to him and it was "challenging yet excit-
rency assets increased by USD 4.202 ing journey to revive Jet Airways."
billion to USD 398.649 billion.
Expressed in dollar terms, foreign cur- ONGC seeks partners to boost output
rency assets include the effect of ap- Proposals have been sought by state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC)
preciation/depreciation of non-US from firms willing to partner with it in raising oil and gas
units like the euro, pound and yen held
production from its 64 marginal fields. In a statement, the
in the reserves. Meanwhile, gold re-
company said that these 64 fields have been clubbed into
serves remained unchanged at USD
17 onshore contract areas which have a cumulative 300
22.958 billion, according to RBI data.
million tonne of oil and oil equivalent natural gas reserves.
Special drawing rights with the Inter- ONGC wants partners who can increase output beyond a pre-agreed baseline and
national Monetary Fund (IMF) in- will share revenues from such incremental production with them. "Salient fea-
creased by USD 4.2 million to USD tures of the ONGC offering (include) complete marketing and pricing freedom to
1.453 billion. India’s reserve position
sell oil and gas on arm's length basis through competitive basis," the statement
with the fund was also increased by
said. "The revenue will be shared on incremental production over and above the
USD 9.6 million to USD 3.354 billion.
baseline production under Business-As-Usual(BAU) scenario," it added.
BANKING FINANCE | AUGUST | 2019 | 11