Air India Divestment In Final Phases, Financial Bids For Airline By Mid-September: Report

Qualified bidders are likely to put in their financial bids ahead of 15^th September as the divestment process of Air India has entered its final phase now.

SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh and the Tata Group, which founded the airline in 1932, are amongst the qualified suitors in this process.

Apparently, executives of Tata Group have visited multiple airline sites across India in the previous few months as they have bid for the airline through AirAsia India, Times of India reports.

The government along with the bidders have had to work on multiple aspects such as employee benefits along with the dealing of government guarantees as Air India’s divestment is expected to be the template for the upcoming strategic sales of other public-sector companies in the future.

Overall, the central government has set a divestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore for FY 21-22.

Along with Air India, sales of other state-owned companies like the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and the Shipping Corporation of India are also lined up for the current fiscal year.

Furthermore, the forthcoming initial public offering (IPO) of insurance giant LIC is anticipated to help push the government meet its selloff program for FY 21-22.