Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) tweeted on Monday, 14 December, saying that they had received ‘multiple bidders’ who put in their preliminary bids for buying the government’s stake in loss-making carrier Air India.
The transaction will now move to the second stage after multiple expressions of interest have been received for strategic disinvestment of Air India, Pandey was quoted as saying by PTI.
These include bids from the Tata Group and a consortium comprising several of the airline’s employees and a US-based investment firm, reported The Indian Express.
Neither the identity of the bidders nor the number of bids received for buying the national carrier has been disclosed officially.
The deadline for the submission of formal bids closed at 5 pm on Monday, the government is expected to notify the qualified bidders on 5 January 2020.
For several months, there had been speculations regarding Tata's interest in the airline but there have been no official comments from the company regarding the same.
Interups Inc Chairman Laxmi Prasad, one of the bidders, said: "We plan to allocate 51 percent of the stake to employees, while rest 49 percent will be kept with us. We have a number of US and Europe based strategic NRI investors."
"If successful in acquiring the stake, we plan to off-load infrastructure assets of the airlines to an 'InvITs', while operational assets will be kept with the company. We foresee a lean management styled company," he added.
Prior to the nationalisation of the airline in the 1960s, It was Tata's who started Air India as Tata Airlines in 1938.
The last date of EoI submission was 14 December. The new date for announcement of shortlisted bidders is 28 December.
(With inputs from The Indian Express, PTI & IANS)
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