According to official sources, Tata Sons has won the final bid to buy national airline Air India. According to insiders, Tata Sons submitted the last proposal for Air India on September 15 and emerged as the frontrunner to purchase the airline.
The government announced on October 8 that Tata Sons had won the battle to buy debt-ridden Air India with a winning bid of Rs 18,000 crore, marking a homecoming for an airline it established but turned over to the state.
An empowered panel of ministers chaired by home minister Amit Shah approved the salt-to-software conglomerate’s bid over SpiceJet chief Ajay Singh, the sole bidder in the competition apart from Tata Sons. In his personal capacity, Singh made an offer of roughly Rs 15,100 crore.
At a press conference, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), announced, “M/S Palace Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, had the winning bid.”
Pandey stated that the total debt of Air India as of August 31 was Rs 61,560 crore. Debt which will be taken over by Tata will be Rs 15,300 crore while Rs 46,262 crore will remain with Air India Asset Holdings Ltd, which is a special purpose vehicle created to retain the non-core assets, land, and the debt of Air India which Tata would not be taking on.
