Tata Sons Wins Bid for Rs 180 Billion
Staff Reporter
The Government of India today announced that the Tata Sons won the bid for debt-laden national carrier Air India, acquiring 100 per cent shareholding.
Tuhin Kanta Pandey, secretary to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said, “We received two financial bids on September 15…Panel of ministers cleared the winning bid. TATA is the winning bid.” This is Air India’s return to its founders after a gap of 68 years.
“TATA presented a winning bid of Rs 18,000 crores,” Pandey said, adding that a letter of intent will be sent to the successful bidder soon. “The transaction is expected to close by end of December 2021,” he said. The DIPAM secretary said the SPV of Tata Sons – the holding company of conglomerate – bid of Rs 18,000 crore comprises taking over of Rs 15,300 crore of debt and paying the rest in cash.
The government has put in Rs 54,584 crores since 2009-10 as cash support and Rs 55,692 crores as guarantee support for Air India, which is a total of Rs 1,10,276 crores, Pandey said, adding that the winning bidder (Tata Sons) will retain all employees for the period of one year. “In the second year, if they aren’t retained, they will be offered VRS by the winning bidders,” he said.
He said a group of ministers comprising Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has cleared the winning bid for Air India on October 4.
