- 60 thousand crore loan on Air India, the buyer will have to take responsibility of only 23286 crore
- Air India had plans to sell a 76% stake in 2018, but no purchase was found.
The government has asked for bids by March 17 to sell the 100% stake of Air India, which is under debt. Information about qualified bidders will be given on 31 March. The government released the bidding documents on Monday. Accordingly, the successful buyer will also be handed over management control of Air India. 100% shares of Air India Express will also be sold.
Air India disinvestment process restarts today https://t.co/72eklh9C3g: THIS DEAL IS WHOLLY ANTI NATIONAL and IWILL FORCED TO GO TO COURT. WE CANNOT SELL OUR FAMILY SILVER
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) January 27, 2020
It is a subsidiary of Air India, which operates cheap flights. There is also a plan to sell the entire 50% stake in joint venture AISATS. AISATS is a 50-50 percent joint venture between Air India and SATS Limited. It was launched with the objective of providing world-class facilities at the airport.
Bidding process failed in 2018, so the government eased the conditions
According to the auction process documents, the buyer will have to take responsibility for the loan of only Rs 23286.5 crore from Air India. The airline has a total debt of Rs 60,074 crore. In 2018, the government sought bids to sell 76% of Air India shares but did not find many buyers. Therefore the conditions have been simplified. According to the terms of 2018, the buyer had to take responsibility for the total loan of Rs 33,392 crore.
Air India Engineering Services, Air India Transport Services, Airline Allied Services and Hotel Corporation of India will be transferred to a separate company- Air India Assets Holding Limited (AIAHL). They will not be included in the sale.