NEW DELHI, Oct 9 (NNN-PTI) – One of India’s business groups, Tata Sons, won the bid for acquiring debt-ridden Air India yesterday, at a cost of 180 billion rupees (around 2.4 billion U.S. dollars), said a senior official of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), a wing of the Ministry of Finance.
“Talace Private Limited of Tata Sons is the winning bidder at 18,000 crores Indian rupees. The transaction is expected to close by the end of Dec, 2021,” said DIPAM Secretary, Tuhin Kant Pandey.
According to Pandey, the total debt of Air India, as of Aug 31 this year is 615 billion Indian rupees (around 8.2 billion U.S. dollars).
The debt, which will be taken by the successful bidder will be, 153 billion Indian rupees (around two billion U.S. dollars). Debt position after debt taken over by the successful bidder will remain 462 billion Indian rupees (6.1 billion U.S. dollars).
DIPAM Secretary Pandey said, “Tatas will have to retain all employees of Air India for one year, but can offer voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in the second year.”
According to him, the Indian government had put in 545 billion Indian rupees (7.27 billion U.S. dollars) since 2009-2010, as cash support and 556 billion Indian rupees (7.42 billion U.S. dollars) as guarantee support for Air India, which is a total of 1.1 trillion Indian rupees (14.7 billion U.S. dollars).– NNN-PTI
