Team News Riveting
If the employees plan succeeded, the Rs 90,000 crore debt-ridden national carrier Air India would be run by the people it had once employed.
Air India’s privatisation plan is entering its final lap. The final date for submission of bids for Air India strategic sale is 14 December and the government has not extended the deadline.
However, the government has extended the intimation date for bidders for Air India to 5 January, from the earlier date of 29 December. This is the date for announcing the shortlisted bidders. The physical bids need to be in by 29 December.
The government has been trying for two years to divest its Air India. It wants to divest 100 per cent stake in Air India and budget carrier AI Express, and sell its 50 per cent share in Air India SATS Airport Services, a joint venture with Singapore-based ground handling firm SATS.
Among other bidders, founder of the Maharaja, the Tata Group, seem to be the likely contender besides top corporate houses including Adani and Hinduja.
What came as a surprise is a group of 209 employees of Air India planning bidding for the national carrier in partnership with a private financier.
As reported earlier, Air India employees are preparing to bid for the national carrier in partnership with a private equity fund and each employee will be asked to contribute Rs 1 lakh towards the bid. The bid process is being led by Meenakshi Mallik, Commercial Director, Air India.
In case this happens, then the employees will hold 51 per cent controlling stake, and the private investor will hold 49 per cent stake in the new entity.
As of now, there are 14,000 employees in Air India, and if all of them contribute Rs 100,000 each, then they can have a huge corpus.
