NEW DELHI: The ball has been set rolling for the Modi government’s second attempt to divest in Air India (AI). Union home minister Amit Shah-led GoM on Tuesday cleared the expression of interest (EoI) along with the share purchase agreement (SPA) for the debt-laden carrier’s privatisation and these two documents are likely to be issued for bidders this month, said a senior official.
The last GoM meeting had taken place in September 2019. It had then approved complete exit from AI, AI Express and also selling AI’s stake in JV AISATS. A voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and debt restructuring plan for AI were also cleared then.
Losing almost Rs 25 crore daily, the Maharaja’s total debt is over to Rs 74,000 crore, which includes nearly Rs 60,000 crore of aircraft and working capital debt and Rs 14,000 crore of net current liabilities or payables. A special purpose vehicle – AI Asset Holding – has taken on Rs 29,464 crore of the airline’s debt along with some assets.
