Govt likely to sell 100 per cent stake in Air India to attract bidders

New Delhi: The government may offload 100 per cent equity share of national carrier Air India in an attempt to woo potential bidders. Worth mentioning here is that in June last year, the civil aviation ministry had suffered a huge setback when not a single bidder submitted Expressions of Interest (EoI) for the ailing state-run carrier.

The government has approached big businesses all over again to evaluate their interest in the national carrier and persuade them to bid once the divestment process takes off, Business Standard reported, citing people aware of the development. The civil aviation ministry and the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) have already started the process.

The report further mentioned that Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola has asked Air India to finalise the financial accounts of the carrier and its subsidiaries for 2018-19 by the end of June.

The Centre is reportedly eyeing around USD 1 billion (about Rs 7,000 crore) from the sale of Air India.

DIPAM secretary Atanu Chakraborty is likely to inform the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) soon regarding steps taken by the department and the transaction advisor about the strategic sale of Air India. The government wants to sell the carrier’s subsidiaries before the airline itself, in an earnest attempt to slash the outstanding debt of approximately Rs 27,000 crore, the report mentioned.

“It was inter alia decided to speed up the process of disinvestment of Air India and its subsidiaries,” according to the financial daily which reviewed the ministry letter sent to Air India.

The government has retained top consultancy firm EY as the transaction advisor and will soon issue the fresh EoI. It is worth mentioning here that North Block is leaving no stone unturned for the strategic sell-off process, with the Centre setting a disinvestment target of Rs 90,000 crore for the fiscal.

“There is a plan to give permanent ESOPs in the company at the time of disinvestment along with the assurance of job continuity for one year,” an official aware of the matter told the daily.
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