Mumbai: Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal agreed to step down from their respective positions in Jet Airways (India) Ltd following a marathon board meeting in Mumbai that started late on Sunday and continued till Monday afternoon. “Naresh Goyal also ceases to be the chairman of the company,” Jet Airways told the exchanges on Monday.
The unprecedented move will see Goyal lose control of an airline that he founded 27 years ago. It also culminates calls from Jet Airways’ lenders, as well as its 24% stakeholder, Etihad Airways PJSC, for Goyal to step down from the chairmanship.
On Monday, a consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India (SBI) took control of Jet Airways, promising to throw open a bidding contest for a new investor that is expected to be completed in the June quarter.
While the lenders ensured that the debt-laden airline is not grounded, it also turned out to be a face-saving exercise for the Indian economy, which is grappling to emerge out of the liquidity crunch following the crisis at Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd. A shutdown of Jet Airways and consequent job losses would have been a political nightmare for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2019.
