The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), a body in India that adjudicates issues on the insolvency and the winding up of companies, has issued an insolvency notice to SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) and directed the carrier to respond to it within two weeks.
The notice was based on an application filed by one of the indebted airline’s operational creditors, Acres Buildwell Pvt Ltd, which claims an outstanding debt of INR32.5 million rupees (USD398,000). Acres Buildwell is a construction company registered in South Delhi.
The order, passed on September 2, gave SpiceJet two weeks to file its response to the plea as to why insolvency resolution proceedings should not be initiated against it, and on September 23 the NCLT revealed that the case was likely to be heard on September 30.
India’s corporate adjudicator has been involved in other debt claims against SpiceJet in recent years, for example when SkyGourmet, one of India’s biggest flight caterers, sued the low-cost carrier in August 2021, also to recover a comparatively minor sum, of INR10.3 million (USD126,000). Last month, Credit Suisse withdrew a winding-up petition against SpiceJet following a lengthy dispute, after the two reached an in-principle settlement over a far larger debt of USD24 million.
SpiceJet, which posted a net loss of INR7.89 billion (USD97 million) for the quarter ending June 30, recently said it was engaged in “multiple ways” to raise USD250 million in fresh capital. It was also thrown a lifeline earlier this month of around INR2.25 billion (USD28 million) in the form of a loan under India’s pandemic-era Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).
