Tata Sons Wins Bid For Acquiring National Carrier Air India At Rs 18,000 Crores
Mumbai: The government on Friday announced that Tata Sons has emerged as the successful bidder for national carrier Air India and has outbid a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh.
Announcing this, DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Friday that the Tata group has cited an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore to emerge as the winner of the financial bid.
The bid was filed by Tails Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons. Tata Sons was against SpiceJet’s promoter Ajay Singh-led consortium, which made a bid of Rs 15,100 crore. As of August 31, Air India has a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore.
Air India’s reserve price was fixed after the bids were called to ensure that the bidders do not get to know about the reserve price before placing their bids. It ensured utmost confidentiality when it comes to the reserve price.
The government will divest its 100 per cent stake in Air India, Air India Express and 50 per cent stake in ground handling company AISATS.
Tata, the new owner of Air India, is set to be a strong player in the aviation ministry as he gets control of 4,400 domestic and 1,800 international landing and parking slots at domestic airports, apart from 900 slots at airports abroad with Air India’s win.
Also, the winning bidder will retain all the employees of Air India; Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal said there would be no layoffs for the first year. “After one year, the Tata group will have the option of offering a voluntary retirement scheme to its employees,” Bansal said.
Air India was originally established by Tata in 1932 as “Tata Airlines”. The great industrialist J.R.D. Tata, who was also India’s first licensed pilot, founded the airline. In the initial phase, the airline used to ferry mail between Mumbai (then Bombay) and Karachi (now in Pakistan) in British India. The airline began commercial operations in 1940. In 1946, the aviation division of Tata Sons was listed as Air India and in 1948, Air India International was launched with flights to Europe.
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