Homegrown budget airline SpiceJet, along with two more entities, Africa-focused Safrik Investments and Sharjah-based aviation company Sky One, have reportedly expressed interest in acquiring beleaguered carrier Go First. Their interest comes weeks after the deadline for making proposals passed and lenders started considering Go First’s liquidation.

According to a report in The Economic Times, the resolution professional (RP) who is managing Go First’s corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) Shailendra Ajmera received requests from these three entities in the past 10 days to conduct due diligence. As per the report, all of the three entities have sought an extension of the deadline.

The report added that the committee of creditors will now meet to decide if an extension can be granted.

Lenders have been contemplating liquidation after they did not receive any bids till the last date for submission of bids, November 22. As per earlier reports, lenders believed they failed to find any buyers due to Go First’s legal and operational issues. The options they had after November 22 was to extend the deadline or proceed towards liquidation.

Jindal Steel and Power promoter Naveen Jindal’s expression of interest (EOI), the only preliminary inquiry to make it as a bidder did not translate into a final bid as he neither bid nor asked for an extension of the timeline.