New Delhi, January 07: Tender (Expression of Interest) for sale to public sector airlines company Air India will be released this month. The Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday approved the draft ‘letter of interest’ and a draft of a share purchase agreement for Air India, are going ahead with the disinvestment process, a senior government official said.
It is noteworthy that the government will sell 100 per cent stake in Air India. Last year, the government called for bids to sell 76 per cent of the shares, but no buyer was found. After this, Transaction Advisor (EY) had prepared a report on the reasons for the bidding process to fail. This time, some changes have been made in the terms of the report.
Significantly, Air India has been incurring losses for a long time. There was a provisional loss of Rs 8,556.35 crore in the financial year 2018-19, while the airline has a debt of more than Rs 50 thousand crore. Therefore, the central government wants to sell Air India. The government plans to complete the sales process by March.
