A consortium comprising of Florian Fritsch of Kalrock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan has emerged as the winning bidder for the beleaguered Jet Airways. Their bid secured over 99 percent votes from the creditor's committee of Jet Airways, and will now be submitted to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for the final nod. If the court gives its nod to the plan, Fritsch & Jalan will be the new owners of the airline.

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Jet Airways’ lenders approve Kalrock Capital Consortium’s bid for airline

Kalrock Capital

London-based Kalrock Capital describes itself as a “global firm operating in financial advisory and alternative asset management, managing significant partners’ assets across a number of clearly defined and diversified strategies and single investments, with focus on private markets”. The firm is primarily active in three verticals, Real Estate, Venture Capital and Special Situations.

Kalrock is backed by Fritsch, an investment group founded by serial entrepreneur Florian Fritsch. Kalrock Partners provides a combination of investment and advisory services in financial, marketing, managerial and legal matters to all its partners.

The group has been investing in alternative asset classes over the past 20 years, both as a principal investor, as well as in co-investment syndicates, as per the information given on its website.

As per Fritsch Group’s website, it was an early investor in Tesla and has made investments in several other firms like All My Homes, Beyond Limits, Biotest, Delivery Hero, Zanaga Iron Ore, etc. While it has invested in distressed firms, Fritsch has not made any investment in an aviation company before, as per the information available on its website.

Manoj Madnani, Board Member of Kalrock Capital spoke to CNBC-TV18 after the consortium was declared the winning bidder. "I want to thank the CoC and the RP for running a thorough and stringent process, which was much appreciated. I also want to thank all the stakeholder of Jet Airways who has supported us throughout this process. We are really excited about this because India is destined to be the third-largest aviation market globally. The current pandemic will not last forever, and once that is behind, we are looking forward to taking it (Jet) to the next level,” Madnani said.

When asked about his plans for Jet Airways, Madnani said, “Our plan is to be a full-service airline. So we will start with domestic, we already have a route plan in mind for domestic, and will go international as well depending on the slot allocation.”

Murari Lal Jalan

Jalan is a UAE based entrepreneur and has investments in several sectors like real estate, mining, trading, construction, fast-moving consumer goods, dairy, travel & tourism and industrial works globally, according to reports.

A multi-billionaire, Jalan has investments in the United Arab Emirates, India, Russia and Uzbekistan among others. He is the founder and Chairman of a realty firm by the name of MJ Developers, which is currently engaged in developing residential and commercial properties in Uzbekistan, as per several media reports.

Other reports suggest Jalan started out in his family’s paper trading business and worked as a trader for JK Paper and Ballarpur Industries in the past, before venturing into phot imaging. He then expanded his business to healthcare and real estate.

Like Kalrock Capital, Murari Lal Jalan also does not have any prior experience in aviation. CNBC-TV18 could not reach Jalan for a comment on the story.

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First Published:Oct 17, 2020 6:46 PM IST