“Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran is expected to present the board on Friday (November 16) a business viability plan on the proposed acquisition of the struggling Jet Airways,” Times of India report suggests.
In the past one-and-half months, the stock rallied 60% from Rs 172 on October 1, 2018, as compared to 3.7% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. It touched a 52-week low of Rs 163 on October 1, and a 52-week high of Rs 884 on January 5, 2018, on BSE in intra-day trade.
Jet Airways on Tuesday termed media reports of Tata group carrying out due diligence to acquire the airline as "speculative".
In a response to the clarification sought by the BSE on the news reports “Tata begins due diligence to buy Jet Airways from Naresh Goyal, the company said, "...the subject news is speculative in nature and that there is no discussion or decision in the board which would require a disclosure..."
Jet Airways said on Wednesday that the board of directors of the company in its meeting held on August 27, 2018, had considered various cost-cutting measures, debt reduction and funding options, including infusion of capital, monetization of assets and sale of company's stake in its Loyalty program.
These measures also include carrying out a sale and subsequent leaseback of its finance leased aircraft, it added.
We are committed to make appropriate disclosures in accordance with applicable regulations to avoid any speculative activities and have been regular in making the required disclosures, the company said. Jet Airways made the clarification on the news items that appeared on the website "www.livemint.com" dated 14 November 2018 captioned "Jet Airways to sell six Boeing 777 planes to reduce debt" and www.thehindubusinessline.com dated 13 November 2018 captioned "Jet Airways in talks to sell stake in luxury unit".
At 09:37 am, Jet Airways was trading 4% higher at Rs 268 on BSE, as compared to 0.02% rise in the Sensex. A combined 3.27 million equity shares changed hands on the counter on the BSE and NSE so far.