Crisis-ridden Jet Airways has finalised Moelis & Co, an investment bank, to manage the stake sale in the loyalty rewards programme JetPrivilege, The Economic Times reported.

The airline is already in advanced discussions with private equity companies TPG Capital and Blackstone for the sale and will choose one of them shortly, sources told the paper.

This will be the first step the airline is taking to shore up ailing finances. Etihad, which owns 50.1 percent in Jet Privilege Pvt Ltd (JPPL), is pushing the deal. Cramer Ball, Jet Airways' former CEO and now among the top positions in Etihad, has been assigned with a key role for the deal, said the report.

This comes as the first ever airline-related deal for Moelis in India, the report mentioned. Jet has not specified the stake it wants to offload, however, sources told the paper that the airline will sell “a large part of its stake” although it would “consider itself unwise” to completely exit the business.