Jet Airways to Consider Cost Cuts, Turnaround Plan Next Week

(Bloomberg) -- Jet Airways India Ltd., the carrier that deferred earnings earlier this month, will consider a turnaround plan on Aug. 27 when its board meets to approve financial results for the quarter ended June.

The board will “take up the matters in relation to the cost reduction initiatives and turnaround plan, for which the management had earlier sought time,” Jet Airways said in a filing Wednesday. The company, part-owned by Etihad Airways PJSC, deferred its earnings originally scheduled for Aug. 9 by more than two weeks, saying management and auditors needed more time to finalize accounts.

Jet Airways, once at the forefront of India’s rapidly growing market for air travel, has been reeling under pressure from the challenge by budget carriers and surging fuel prices. It reported losses in all of the last 11 financial years but two, and needs to repay about $447 million in debt coming due through March 31.

The Mumbai-based company had total debt of 94.3 billion rupees ($1.4 billion), and cash and equivalents of 3.2 billion rupees for the year ended March 31, 2018, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. The firm’s total debt ballooned to 55.4 times earnings before interest and tax as of March 31, compared with 4.9 times the previous year, the data showed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Debjit Chakraborty in New Delhi at dchakrabor10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pratish Narayanan at pnarayanan9@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues, Niveditha Ravi

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