No bidders for Jayaswal’s plane even at lower price

Nagpur: IDBI Bank has failed in its second attempt to auction the private jet owned by Manoj Jayaswal, and recover its dues. No bids were received for the jet, sources said on Tuesday evening.
The first request for proposal (RFP) had been floated on January 19, when the reserve price was fixed at $13.05 million, which comes to over 83 crore, according to current exchange rate.The auction was held on February 5, but none of the bidders had met the minimum price announced by the bank.
The bank lowered the bar in the RFP floated on May 15. In the second round, the reserve price was fixed at $9 million (57 crore). Even as the bank did not comment, an official from Abhijeet Group informed through a SMS that no one bid in the second round also.
“The company was following the developments with the bank, and it has been confirmed there were no bids in the second round too,” said the official of the Abhijeet Group.
A spokesperson at IDBI Bank said no one was available to comment on the issue as all senior officers were busy with a board meeting preceding the declaration of financial results.
The plane is held in the name of Pathbreaking Projects Limited, earlier known as Abhijeet Projects. The company is facing a winding up petition from its creditors, which could be one of the reasons for the lack of response to the offer, said a source. When the bids were invited in January there were some 3-4 offers but below the reserve price of $13 million, so the final auction did not take off, said the company source.
The RFP document issued by the bank says that the loan availed by this company was restructured due to certain unforeseen conditions. Under the terms of restructuring package, the company was required to execute an irrevocable power of attorney in favour of IDBI Bank and enable it to sell the aircraft and adjust the proceeds against part of the outstanding dues.
The plane has remained grounded at Nagpur airport for want of maintenance for over two years. Sources say the company is not in a position to undertake the expenditure, with even the pilots’ salaries remaining unpaid.
The company, Pathbreaking Projects Limited, currently has loans of over 220 crore from other banks, like Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited, says data on ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) website. There are two other cases against the company apart from the winding up petition, says the website.