JV with Singapore Airlines, Temasek may submit EoI.
Tata
Sons and Singapore Airlines are actively weighing the option to
bid for Air India and a decision to submit an expression of interest
(EoI) could be taken soon.
Sources
aware of the development said the board of Tata Sons, the holding
company of the group, would meet later this week and possibly take up
the Air India matter for approval.
Singapore
government’s sovereign fund Temasek is also likely to be a part of
the consortium being planned for the Air India bid, one of the
sources said.
When
asked about Tata group’s interest in Air India, Bhaskar Bhat,
chairman of Vistara and a director in Tata Sons board, said the group
was evaluating options.
"We
are evaluating Air
India. Which company would not be interested in evaluating a
sovereign airline of the country?...Whether we bid or not comes
later," he said. On whether Vistara or Tata Sons was evaluating
Air India, Bhat said, "We (Vistara) are a joint venture".
The
government has decided to sell 100 per cent stake in the airline and
has invited bids for it. The last date to submit bids is March 17 but
the deadline could be extended if there are requests from potential
bidders.
Officials
involved in Air India’s sale process said a big reason why the Tata
group didn’t submit a bid last time was the government’s decision
to hold on to 24 per cent stake. “They were interested last time
too. But a big hurdle was that they wouldn’t have been able to
merge Air India with Vistara unless they owned 100 per cent,”
another source said.
After
its unsuccessful bid to sell Air India in 2018, the central
government this time has decided to off-load its entire stake.
Tatas,
the salt-to-software conglomerate, and Singapore’s national airline
operate Vistara, which inducted its first wide body aircraft Boeing
787-9 Dreamliner on Monday.
The
wide body aircraft is the centre piece of Vistara’s business plan.
It’s expecting that supremacy in long-haul international routes
will help it recoup losses due to the cut-throat domestic market
dominated by low-cost airlines.
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