Financial Bids For Air India Disinvestment Likely by September 2021, Says Centre

The Centre is likely to receive financial bids for its strategic disinvestment of 100 per cent stake in the national carrier Air India, by September 15, 2021 from qualified interested bidders (QIBs).

Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh informed Lok Sabha about this in a written response to a question on the status of Air India's disinvestment process, on Thursday.

The minister further informed the Lower House that the Civil Aviation Ministry had issued the preliminary information memorandum for inviting Expression of Interest (EOI) for strategic disinvestment of Air India along with 100 per cent stake in Air India Express Ltd and 50 per cent stake in Air India SATS, on January 27, 2020.

However owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic, the last date for submission of EOI was frequently postponed and finally it was fixed for December 14, 2020, he said in the reply.

Subsequently multiple EoIs were received by the "Transaction Advisor", who evaluated them for selection of QIBs. Request for Proposal (RFP) along with draft Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) were shared with QIBs by the Transaction Adviser on March 30, 2021 for submission of financial bids, which are now likely to be received by September 15, 2021.

Mr Singh also informed Lok Sabha that a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) i.e. Air India Assets Holding Limited (AIAHL), has been setup inter-alia for warehousing non-core assets of Air India Limited.

Monetisation proceeds of non-core assets of Air India are to be used to offset the debt of Air India transferred to AIAHL, he further said.