Germán Efromovich, born 1950 in La Paz is a Bolivian-born entrepreneur with multiple citizenship viz; Brazilian, Colombian, and Polish. He is the owner of South American conglomerate, Synergy Group Corp. Synergy Group Corp, owns majority shares in airlines including Colombian carrier Avianca Holdings, has shown probing interest in investing in Jet Airways, which operations on April 17 after running out of cash and failing to raise money to keep afloat.
The Synergy Group, which owns majority of Avianca Holdings the second-largest airline Latin America, after Chilean carrier LATAM Airlines, formed in 2010 via the merger of Colombia’s Avianca and El Salvador’s TACA Airlines has submitted an expression of interest for the bankrupt and grounded airline after the deadline of August set by the resolution professional running the bid process.
According to reports, the South American Group could be interested only in the assets of Jet Airways and not in the airline as a whole. Avianca reportedly is itself a loss-making entity. It is itself being restructured, which includes, a phase-out of aircraft, a change in management team, and network optimization. Therefore, its interest in Jet is suspected to be limited to assets such as aircraft and airport slots.
Ashish Chhawchharia of Grant Thornton, Resolution professional running the bidding process, will allegedly seek approval from the committee of Jet’s creditors to include Synergy in the race. Moreover, the resolution professional had not yet released the final list of prospective bidders for the August 21 deadline.
India’s bankruptcy court-appointed the RP after it admitted an insolvency plea from Jet’s top lender, State Bank of India, on loan repayment defaults. Also, the committee of creditors was formed as part of the resolution process.
The RP had already received three EoIs for Jet as of August 10 – billionaire Anil Agarwal’s family trust – Volcan Investments, Panama-based investment firm Avantulo Group, and Russian Fund Treasury RA Creator.
The RP however, has gathered claims from all creditors and he is in-charge of finding a new investor for the airline to clear Jet Airline’s dues and give it a new life.
