Air India receives early bids from employee group, Tatas

Bloomberg

Air India Ltd has received early bids from the Tata Group and a cohort of its own employees as the government tries to rescue its loss-making flag carrier.
Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of the conglomerate that controls Jaguar Land Rover and part-owns Air Asia Co’s Indian unit, has submitted an expression of interest, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
A group of 219 Air India employees has also submitted a bid to purchase a majority stake.
The government has received multiple bids for Air India, Disinvestment Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in New Delhi, the final day for bidding. He declined to name the bidders.
Air India has been on sale since 2017 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet signed off on a plan to sell all or part of the debt-ridden carrier. The government sweetened the deal earlier this year when it extended the bid deadline to December 14 from October 30, saying potential suitors will be allowed to decide how much of the flag carrier’s debt they want to take on as part of the transaction. The rules before that required bidders to take over the carrier’s $3.3 billion of aircraft debt, deterring buyers.
Tata Sons has bid alone for Air India and could seek partners as the process progresses, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. A Tata group representative declined to comment.
The employee-led group seeks to buy 51% of Air India and the remaining 49% will be held by a financial partner, according to Meenakshi Malik, who is Air India’s commercial director and has been with the airline for about 30 years. Each employee will have to contribute at least 100,000 rupees ($1,360) towards the bid, she said.