Nirbhay Kumar
New Delhi: In a major setback to over 200 Air India employees led by airline Board member Meenakshi Mallik, transaction advisor for disinvestment of the national carrier has informed them that the consortium does not meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the second stage of bidding.
Employee sources said that the message was conveyed by transaction advisor EY in a letter dated March 7, 2021.
A section of Air India executives believe that Tata group and Ajay Singh-led SpiceJet are in the fray for acquiring the flag carrier.
Miffed over disqualification, a member of the employee consortium wants the government to make the details of all the bidder public and also if they placed their bids within the time frame set by the public notification.
The Air India employee consortium had teamed up with a Financial Fund based out of the Republic of Seychelles for gaining the required financial muscle to bid for the airline.
Though disappointed by the disqualification, some executives of the airline expressed satisfaction saying that at least they made sincere attempts. Not only that, their action paved way for employees of other disinvestment-bound PSUs such as Shipping Corporation of India and Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd to make similar bid.
While Top Lead India could not immediately confirm the reasons for disqualification, sources said that the employee consortium had not submitted three years’ audited financial statements of its foreign partner.
Details related to investments in offshore companies were found wanting.
“It was also communicated that the foreign firm partnering with us was not appropriately regulated as required in the Expression of Interest (EoI) document,” an executive said.
Director (Marketing) Meenakshi Mallik who had been instrumental in readying the initial bid could not be contacted for her comments.
After it failed to sell Air India in 2018, the government in January 2020 re-started the divestment process and invited bids for selling its entire 100% stake instead of 76% on the block earlier.
This time the government is determined to dispose off the national carrier and hopes to complete the process by August, 2021. The central government has repeatedly said that it does not want to put any further money in Air India which has been incurring losses.
Air India had a total debt of Rs 58,255 crore as on March 31, 2019. A large part of the debt is, however, being transferred from Air India to a government-owned special purpose vehicle called Air India Assets Holding Company Limited (AIAHL).