After being denied any additional funding from lenders, Jet Airways operations came to a temporary halt on April 17. Meanwhile, its lenders said they were "reasonably hopeful" of a successful stake sale process.
Bids were invited from four potential investors--Etihad Airways, TPG Capital, Indigo Partners and the government-backed National Infrastructure and Investment Fund.
Jet Airways lenders tie hopes to stake sale process
With a complete shutdown, Jet faces a turbulent flight back to recovery while lenders are staring at higher provisions and deeper haircut since it is no longer a “going concern”. Lenders have pinned their hopes on the stake sale process that has been able to attract four eligible bidders.
“Lenders are reasonably hopeful that the bid process is likely to be successful in determining a fair value of the enterprise in a transparent manner,” the banking consortium led by the State Bank of India said a day after the grounding.
RBI Governor bats for growth, non-conventional policy measures
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das stressed on the need to support economic growth and said inflation was likely to be lower than projected, as he voted for a rate cut in the April Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) review meeting.
"Investment demand is losing traction and a deceleration in exports may further impact investment activity," Das said. "With the inflation outlook looking benign and headline inflation expected to remain below target in the current year, it becomes necessary to address the challenges to the sustained growth of the Indian economy," he added.
Das, along with MPC member Ravindra Dholakia, suggested a move from the conventional policy action measure of 25 basis points or its multiples. "I would like to state here that there is a need to consider interest rate adjustments, not necessarily in the conventional way of 25 bps or multiples thereof," Das said.
ICICI Bank introduces measures to boost auto loan growth
The country's second largest private lender, ICICI Bank is optimistic about achieving steady growth in the auto loans segment despite a slowdown in vehicle sales volumes.
"Growth (in sales volumes) is low but financing penetration is increasing. For instance, our vehicle loan growth is around 18 percent, which is much higher than the general growth, because of financing penetration," said Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, adding, the growth is likely to continue at similar pace going ahead.
As on December 31, 2018, the bank had an outstanding auto loan book of Rs 53,000 crore. The lender, on April 17, allowed online final sanction letters to obtain a car and two-wheeler loans for a select set of pre-approved customers.
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