Sahara open to all options to settle row with Jet: Subrata Roy
05 Feb 2010
Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy says that his company was open to all options for the settlement of the dispute over payment default by Jet Airways in the Air Sahara buyout deal.
He said that the group was open to all options to settle the dispute with Jet Airways but since the case was in the court, the court would decide.
In March 2009, Sahara India Commercial Corporation had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court claiming that the Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways had defaulted on the instalment due towards payment for the acquisition of Sahara Airlines (now JetLite) and according to the terms of the contract it was liable to pay the original deal amount of Rs2,000 crore and not the re-negotiated amount of Rs1,450 crore.
The group also claimed the price had been revised downward to Rs1,450 crore from Rs 2,000 crore conditional to Jet making payment on time. However, according to Sahara there was a default in payment from Jet's side and concession on the takeover deal was therefore not tenable.
Jet acquired Air Sahara in April 2007 for Rs1,450 crore following an arbitration award. It made a payment of Rs900 crore and agreed to make the balance payment in four installments.
Earlier, lawyer for Jet Airways had contended that in March 2008, the Income Tax Department had demanded tax dues of Rs107 crore from Air Sahara which pertained to the period prior to the acquisition.
