Team News Riveting
New Delhi, December 14
Tata Group, SpiceJet, employees and a US entrepreneur are reported to be in the fray to buy Air India.
India’s national carrier, Air India has been on sale since 2017 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet signed off on a plan to sell all or part of the debt-ridden carrier. The government extended the bid deadline to December 14 from October 30, clarifying that potential suitors would be allowed to decide how much of the flag carrier’s debt they wanted to take on as part of the transact.
A group of 219 Air India Ltd. employees submitted a bid to purchase 51 per cent of the loss-making state-owned carrier. The remaining 49 per cent would be held by a financial partner, according to Meenakshi Malik, who is Air India’s commercial director and had been with the airline for about 30 years.
Each employee will have to contribute at least 100,000 rupees toward the bid, Malik, who is leading the group, said.
Besides the employees, Tata Group, SpiceJet and New York-based Interups Inc chairman Laxmi Prasad are learnt to have submitted the Expression of Interest.
Multiple expressions of interest have been received for strategic disinvestment of Air India”, Secretary with the department of disinvestment and public asset management said in a tweet. The Transaction will now move to the second stage, he added.
Bidders who qualify to bid for Air India as per eligibility norms would be intimated on January 5, 2021.
