| Tribunal's nod for Rs 1,450cr merger; Jet to make staggered payments stretching till 2011. |
| Settling its ten-month-old dispute, Jet Airways has agreed to buy out Air Sahara for Rs 1,450 crore. The three-member tribunal headed by British judge Lord Stein today approved the proposal by the two airlines. |
| The terms of the deal, signed at 1.20 pm today, were announced at two separate press conferences in Mumbai and New Delhi by Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways and Alok Sharma, president of Air Sahara, respectively. |
| Jet Airways has already paid Rs 500 crore as a deposit to Air Sahara which, in turn, has accepted a generously staggered payment schedule stretching till 2011. Jet will pay only Rs 400 crore on or before April 20. The remaining Rs 550 crore will be paid in interest-free equal instalments (Rs 137.50 crore each) from March 30, 2008, to 2011. |
| Taking the savings on interest (at existing rates), the net present value of what Jet will pay is Rs 1,200 crore. After the deal was signed, Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet, said, “We have got the airline for 40 per cent less than the original price offered in January 2006.” Read more at Business Standard |
