The government of India has plans to invite interests to sell Air India by the end of the month. It is looking forward to completing the transaction by the end of the year. However, there is no official announcement made by the officials on the same.
Further, sources have shared that the government will conduct roadshows and are ready to meet prospective buyers. The prospective buyers get to take a look at the accounts of the airline except for some confidential accounts.
They can also check out the share purchase agreement as the government will be selling its stake in the airline. Upon reading through the agreement, the buyers can suggest changes in the sale terms during the period of expressing interest.
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The government had made an attempt to partially exit from the carrier last year. But, it could not attract any bidder then. During the Union Budget 2019 announcement, Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the government will revive the plan to sell Air India. This is a part of the government’s efforts to raise Rs.1.05 trillion after selling stakes in state-run companies.
It is necessary to recall that Air India has failed to keep up its market dominance among its competitors such as InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet. It has been a decade since the competitors have been offering cheap and on-time flights. Estimates state that the state-run airline has had losses of over Rs.76 billion in the previous year and has debts of about $8.4 billion.
