- Wednesday, May 01, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
At least three lenders have termed loans issued to Indian carrier SpiceJet under “high-risk category”, Reuters has reported citing informed sources.
Among the three are IDFC Bank and Yes Bank, two private lenders, and the state-owned Indian Bank, the report added.
It was said that the lenders are concerned about SpiceJet’s cash flows and held talks seeking assurances from it as it is lagging on payments to some aircraft lessors, the sources told Reuters.
The budget carrier though rubbished the report saying no lender has red alerted its account.
“SpiceJet would like to state that the article is absolutely false and baseless. None of our banks has put our account on high risk or alert. The same has been confirmed to us by our lenders. It is unfortunate that the story was run despite our strong denial and no official comment from any of our banks,” SpiceJet said in a regulatory filing.
The lenders — IDFC, Yes Bank and Indian Bank — were yet to issue a statement.
The report came days after the Press Trust of India reported citing sources that three SpiceJet planes were deregistered by India’s civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after their lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise moved the regulator.
Earlier this month, Network18 learned from its sources that SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh could hold discussions with a middle-eastern airline for a possible sale.
In July, the DGCA asked SpiceJet not to operate more than 50 per cent of its scheduled flights for eight weeks after it served the airline a showcause notice over “degraded” safety.
