SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) has reached “an in-principle commercial agreement” with investment bank Credit Suisse to settle a dispute over a debt, in which a court had previously issued a winding up order for the indebted budget carrier.
In a Mumbai Stock Exchange filing, SpiceJet said: “We wish to inform you that Credit Suisse AG and the company have now reached an in-principle commercial settlement to the dispute and the process of documentation is underway. The settlement [...] follows the company’s successful settlements [in the past] with the Boeing Company, De Havilland Aircraft of Canada Limited, and aircraft lessors such as CDB Aviation and Avolon.”
In a separate statement it elaborated that it had “already deposited USD5 million on the direction of the Hon’ble Madras High Court in the Credit Suisse case and there is no adverse financial liability on the company. [The agreement] involves payment of the settlement amount over a mutually agreed period of time.”
SpiceJet disclosed in December 2021 that the Madras High Court had issued a winding up order for it and had appointed an official liquidator to take charge of its assets, as the carrier had failed to pay USD24.01 million to Swiss MRO firm SR Technics for the maintenance and repair of engines, modules, components, assemblies, and parts under a contract dated November 24, 2011.
In September 2012, the MRO firm entered into a financing deal with Credit Suisse under which it assigned all of its rights to claim payments. The investment bank approached the court in 2015 to plea for payment after having made repeated requests to the airline to pay the invoices.
Earlier this year, the case went to India’s Supreme Court, which on January 28 gave SpiceJet three weeks to settle its issues with Credit Suisse out of court, postponing for this period a liquidation order against the airline which the Madras court had confirmed several weeks earlier.
