Jet-Sahara extend merger plan by 90 days

New Delhi, Mar 23 (UNI) Jet Airways and Air Sahara today agreed to extend the terms of share purchase agreement by 90 days, ending a day full of speculation that there was a price re-negotiation for the biggest merger in Indian aviation.

A joint statement issued late night said the enterprise value remains the same, that is 500 million dollars (about Rs 2,300 crore).

The statement was signed by chairman of Jet Airways Naresh Goyal and chief of the Sahara Pariwar Subrata Roy.

It capped a day of confusion, contradictory statements by unnamed airline officials and wild speculation which kept aviation journalists hopping from one hotel to another, from the ministry of civil aviation to the residence of civil aviation minister Praful Patel who had left for Mumbai in the morning.

Ultimately, over a dozen of them landed at the airport in evening where Jet Airways executive director Saroj Datta arrived to catch the flight for Mumbai. He left without dropping a clue of what happened during the meetings.

Mr Goyal was also scheduled to take the flight to Mumbai but did not turn up at the IGI airport ultimately. He and top airline officials had flown in morning to start meetings with Sahara officials.

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