Murari Lal Jalan Set To Revive The Jet Airways, From Setting A Photo Lab At Ranchi To A Multi- Billionaire At Dubai, Know His Story

Jalan worked as a trader for established manufacturers such as JK Paper and Ballarpur Industries. With the success in paper trading, he ventured into photo imaging and distribution of photography equipment at Ranchi and now will be owning the Jet Airways

Murari Lal Jalan (Getty Images)

After 16 months of being defunct, Jet Airways is all set to start its 2.0 phase after the creditors' committee elected the consortium of UK based Karlock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan. The bid secured 99% of the votes and the resolution is submitted to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for its final nod. It’s not very far that the airline will have its new owners.

The London-based Karlock Capital is backed by Florian Fritsch and is primarily active in three verticals, Real Estate, Venture Capital, and Special Situations. While the other partner the UAE-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan hails from Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Who is Murari Lal Jalan?

Murari Lal Jalan started working with his father at the age of 17. His family owned a paper trading business in Kolkata. Later he worked with JK Paper and Ballarpur Industries. After his success in the paper trading business, he started a new venture of Photo Imaging and distribution of photography equipment. For which he even went to Japan for training.

Taking his the family business of Paper trading to the next level, in 2003 he entered into paper manufacturing after acquiring Kanoi Paper and Industries.

Currently based in Dubai, the multi-billionaire has investments in several sectors like real estate, mining, trading, construction, fast-moving consumer goods, dairy, travel & tourism, and industrial works globally. Jalan further expanded his empire by investing in countries like the UAE, India, Russia, and Uzbekistan among others. He is also the founder and Chairman of a realty firm MJ Developers, which is currently engaged in developing residential and commercial properties in Uzbekistan, as per reports.

Even though with no prior experience in the aviation industry the Karlock-Jalan duo has planned to “Keep it Simple”. Speaking to the media Manoj N Madnani, board member of Kalrock Capital and the spokesperson of the transaction told about the plans of restarting the airline very soon, with first starting the domestic sector and later moving on with the international sector. He even told about the plans of the venture of focusing on the cargo, as the pandemic has seen the rise of cargo worldwide.

Jet Airways was grounded in April 2019, due to a shortage of funds, with over 8800 permanent employees and a fleet of around 142 aircraft. The airline once controlled about 22.6% of the total passenger market share.

A year and a half post its temporary grounding, Jet Airways’ resolution professional, Ashish Chhawchharia has received claims of over ₹36,090 crore, however, only claims the team admitted worth ₹4,640 crore.