Aircel Lenders Looking to Restart Mobile Business With New Investors

Follow Us

Last month Aircel India filed for bankruptcy, but it seems the firm may yet revive again. Aircel’s committee of creditors is considering an option to restart the company’s mobile phone operations in few select circles and looking for funding from investors other than promoters, sources familiar with the matter told ET. A person attending the meeting of that Aircel’s committee of creditors (CoC) said they are already in discussions as to which circles to start running. “It’s quite clear that the promoters won’t be infusing any more cash. So, the idea is to look for funding from other parties. It’s a blank slate right now,” said the source. “The discussions also revolved around which circles to start running,” the person added.

aircel-dot-orders




This was apparently one of the various options the CoC - formed after National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved Aircel’s plea for bankruptcy protection on March 8 - discussed in its first meeting held on April 13.

The CoC meeting took place in SBI’s Fort –Mumbai branch and was attended by lenders, led by State Bank of India. Also present in the meeting were representatives from management, and the insolvency professional from Deloitte, Vijaykumar V Iyer, who is trying to find ways to restart the operations and repay lenders.

Aircel’s CEO Kaizad Heerjee, however, was absent from the meeting. Sources say he was overseas in Malaysia trying to arrange funding for the operator. Malaysia’s Maxis owns Aircel.

However, the revival of the Aircel operations is still not definitive. People aware of the developments say that though 30 days have passed since the interim resolution professional from Deloitte took over, but a final decision on the company’s future are yet to be made. The IRP has 180 days to arrive at a resolution.

Aircel and SBI have failed to respond to ET queries. Deloitte also not to comment on the issue as a spokesperson told ET: “We are bound by confidentiality obligations and are unable to comment on client-specific matters.”

Meanwhile, Aircel woes continue as the agitated employees demand clarity of payments, and the operator is also facing legal battles with tower firms GTL Infrastructure and America Tower Company (ATC), and vendors such as Swedish gear maker Ericsson over unpaid dues.

Reported By

Managing Editor

Chakri is a go-to guy for your next smartphone recommendation. Back in his engineering days, he used to play with smartphones by installing custom ROMs and that passion got him into the tech industry. He still goes nuts about a smartphone knocking his door for review. Currently managing everything at Telecom Talk, Chakri is trying to master PUBG Mobile in his free time.

Recent Comments

TheAndroidFreak :

Wait for BSNL to launch 700Mhz PAN India with 200000 sites and VoLTE services. Along with that and Vi 900Mhz,…

Reliance Jio's All Data Plans will Work with Voice Plans…

Faraz :

BSNL was never dependable in the first place. You were not there when we were paying 299 for 1 GB…

Jio Changes Validity of Rs 69 and Rs 139 Data…

Shivraj :

Thats just an illusion Lmao They are very much not on there knees Remember they have 450M subscribers Shedding 1M…

Reliance Jio's All Data Plans will Work with Voice Plans…

Load More
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

4 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments