India's Go First airline seeks investor interest as part of insolvency process
BENGALURU (Reuters) -India's Go Airlines (India) Ltd has invited investor interest in the company through a court-appointed administrator as part of the carrier's ongoing insolvency, a newspaper advertisement showed on Monday.
The process is in line with procedural requirements under Indian law.
Two bankers aware of the developments told Reuters on Monday that they expect Indian conglomerate Wadia Group - which used to own Go Airlines before it started bankruptcy proceedings - to be part of its insolvency process.
The Wadias, however, have not communicated their intent directly to bankers, they said. Go Airlines and Wadia Group's Ness Wadia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
"There has always been intent and inclination from the Wadias to keep the airline afloat," said one of the bankers, who did not want to be named as he is directly involved in Go First's insolvency process.
"They (Wadia Group) are not disqualified by law to bid for the airline because there has technically been no default," this banker said.
Go Airlines, which operated the Go First carrier, filed for bankruptcy protection in May blaming "faulty" Pratt & Whitney engines for the grounding of about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. The engine maker had said the claims are without merit.
"There is no formal indication to banks that the Wadia Group will submit an EoI, but the likelihood is that they will," said a banker of a state-owned lender that has exposure to the airline and is a part of the committee of creditors to Go First.
The banker did not wish to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Right after the bankruptcy filing, the airline's then chief executive had told Reuters that the Wadia Group was completely committed to the company.
(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru, Siddhi Nayak in Mumbai; Writing by Rama Venkat; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
