Air India divestment: Govt extends bid deadline to Dec 14, revises bidding parameters

The government on Thursday announced that it has decided to extend the deadline for inviting bids for Air India till December 14. In a bid to sweeten Air India's strategic sale deal, the government has also revised bidding parameters for the divestment. Now, the government would ask for bids from the interested parties at enterprise value, union civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri said on Thursday.The bids will now be invited on the enterprise value where bids will be invited on both equity and debt, Puri also said.

"AISAM has decided to change the biding parameters and ask for bids at Enterprise Value," he added. The bids will be invited on equity and debt, Puri said, adding that as per current PIM, the debt left in Air India would be Rs 23,286 crore.

Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said at the conference, "The bid will be on the enterprise value. In this enterprise value also, a ratio has been earmarked between how much he (bidder) can take as debt and how much he has to give as cash."

It has been decided that whatever enterprise value the bidder quotes, 15 per cent of that has to be given in cash to the government and remaining 85 per cent has to be taken as debt along with Air India, Kharola explained.

The debt of Air India as on March 31, 2019 was Rs 58,255 crore. Later in 2019, Rs 29,464 crore of this debt was transferred from Air India to a government-owned special purpose vehicle called Air India Assets Holding Company Limited (AIAHL).

After its unsuccessful attempt to sell Air India in 2018, the government in January this year restarted the divestment process and invited bids for selling 100 per cent of its equity in the state-owned airline, including Air India's 100 per cent shareholding in Air India Express Ltd and 50 per cent in Air India SATS Airport Services Private Ltd.

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