Tata Sons top bidder for Air India: Sources

Tata Sons has emerged as the top bidder for the takeover of debtladen staterun airline Air India but the bid is yet to be approved by a group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah sources saidFinancial bids put in by the salttosoftware conglomerate and SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh were opened a few days back and were vetted by the Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment headed by the Cabinet Secretary on Wednesday sources with knowledge of the matter saidThe bids were evaluated against the reserve price set and Tatas emerged as the highest bidder they said adding this will now have to be placed before the committee of ministers on Air India privatisation led by ShahAlso Read Air Indias new owner to be decided in next few days SourcesThe other members of the panel called Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism AISAM are Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Civil Aviation Minster Jyotiraditya ScindiaThe finance ministry and Tata Sons declined to comment on the matterTuhin Kanta Pandey secretary to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management DIPAM the government department responsible for privatisation in a tweet said the Centre has so far not approved any financial bid for Air IndiaMedia reports indicating approval of financial bids by Government of India in the AI disinvestment case are incorrect Media will be informed of the Governments decision as and when it is taken he tweetedPost the submission of bids on September 15 security clearance of the bidders was obtained following which their financial bids were opened by the Core group of Secretaries on disinvestment CGDIf its bid is accepted by AISAM Tatas will take over the national carrier they once foundedJehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy JRD Tata founded the airline in 1932 It was called Tata Airlines thenIn 1946 the aviation division of Tata Sons was listed as Air India and in 1948 Air India International was launched with flights to EuropeThe international service was among the first publicprivate partnerships in India with the government holding 49 per cent the Tatas keeping 25 per cent and the public owning the restIn 1953 Air India was nationalisedThe government is seeking to sell 100 per cent of its stake in the stateowned national airline including Air Indias 100 per cent shareholding in AI Express Ltd and 50 per cent in Air India SATS Airport Services Private LtdThe stake sale process which began in January 2020 faced delays due to the COVID19 pandemic In April 2021 the government asked potential bidders to put in financial bidsSeptember 15 was the last day for putting in financial bidsTata Group was among the multiple entities that had put in an initial expression of interest EoI in December 2020 for buying the MaharajaWith previous attempts since 2017 failing to get any significant interest and after receiving feedback from potential investors the government had in October last year sweetened the EoI clause relating to the transfer of Air Indias debt to the new investor giving bidders flexibility to decide on the quantum of humongous debt they want to absorbAs per the Air India EoI floated by DIPAM in January 2020 of the airlines total debt of Rs 60074 crore as of March 31 2019 the buyer would be required to absorb Rs 232865 croreThe rest would be transferred to Air India Assets Holding Ltd AIAHL a special purpose vehicleAir India has been in losses ever since its merger with domestic operator Indian Airlines in 2007The airline will give the successful bidder control of 4400 domestic and 1800 international landing and parking slots at domestic airports as well as 900 slots at airports overseasBesides the bidder would get 100 per cent of the lowcost arm Air India Express and 50 per cent of AISATS which provides cargo and ground handling services at major Indian airportsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever