SpiceJet Directed To Pay Back Credit Suisse's Arrears

The Supreme Court on Friday directed SpiceJet Ltd. to pay Credit Suisse Group AG $1 million every month for the next six months, in order to clear out its arrears towards the Swiss investment bank.

The court has ordered the airline to deposit $500,000 towards its monthly obligations and an additional $500,000 every month for the next six months to clear out its arrears.

Presently, the outstanding arrears stand at $3 million.

The case will now come up for hearing on Oct. 20.

During the last hearing on Sept. 11, the top court was alarmed to see that SpiceJet was failing to take care of its debt obligations towards the Swiss investment bank.

At the time, the airline had outstanding arrears of about $4 million.

As a result, the court ordered it to deposit $500,000 before Sept. 15, in lieu of its monthly payments. It further asked the airline to put down an additional $1 million towards the defaulted amount.

In compliance with the court directive, SpiceJet completed the payment of $1.5 million on Sept. 14.

In May last year, SpiceJet and Credit Suisse entered into a settlement agreement, which was subsequently approved by the top court.

The dispute emanates from an aircraft maintenance agreement that SpiceJet entered into with Switzerland-based SR Technics in 2011. Later, SR Technics signed a financing agreement with Credit Suisse. This gave Credit Suisse the right to get paid for invoices raised against SpiceJet for maintenance and repair of the aircraft.

In December 2021, the Madras High Court ordered the winding up of SpiceJet on the grounds that it failed to clear the debt owed to Credit Suisse.

This led to the matter landing in the top court, where both sides finally agreed to settle the dispute through a court-approved settlement.

Today's development is a positive outcome for the company and its stakeholders, and the airline is committed to paying its dues in full and on time, SpiceJet's spokesperson said in a statement to the media.