Facts about Air India sale

January 28, 2020 Hot from the Oven Valli Sarvani No comments

Indian government yesterday announced to sell the entire stake of the national carrier, Air India as part of its strategic disinvestment.

Initially, the government proposed to sell a major portion of the stake in the airline and retain a certain part of it. However, the proposal had not gained the attention of buyers.

The airline is running on losses of thousands of crores of rupees and the debt pile is around ₹58,000. At present, the Government of India holds a complete stake in Air India and Air India Express.

The government issued a bid document which states that 100 per cent stake would be sold in Air India Express and 50 per cent shareholding in joint venture AISATS.

Here are some important facts about Air India sale:

Government of India wants to sell a 100 per cent stake in Air India in both domestic and international routes.
Many of the subsidiaries of Air India would be excluded from the sale.
Interested buyers will have to submit their initial express on or before March 17. As per the bidding document, the debt is nearly $3.26 billion.
The scope of Interested foreign bidders is restricted by up to 49 per cent. The control of the carrier will remain with an Indian entity.
Air India is popular for its Maharaja mascot. It has many profitable landing and parking slots at both domestic and international airports. The successful party will get control over all these.
The carrier has more than 4,400 domestic landing and parking slots and 1,800 international slots at Indian airports. In addition to that, it has 900 slots at international airports.
In 2018, the government proposed to sell a 76 per cent stake with $5.1 billion of its debt.
Air India has been witnessing huge losses since the last decade. In addition to that, it has a debt of ₹80,000 crores; hence, the government said that there was no option but to privatize the carrier.

Image Credit: Image by skeeze from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)