TATAS REGAIN AIRLOOM

Book ₹18,000cr Return Ticket On Struggling Carrier | TATA, BUY-BUY: Almost 89 yrs to the day that JRD Tata piloted its maiden flight, and 68 yrs after it was taken over by the govt, life comes full circle for Air India as it flies home to Bombay House.

New Delhi/ Mumbai: It’s a lost and-found story like no other in business folklore. A 153-year-old conglomerate reclaims an airline behemoth after 68 years and several governments, tracing a policy arc from nationalisation to disinvestment to privatisation. It’s also a homecoming that’s been two decades in the making, with the Tatas first making an unsuccessful bid to buy and the government of the day then making an unsuccessful bid to sell its stake. The Tatas finally got third time lucky, marking the first successful privatisation by a government in nearly 17 years.

Tata Sons–which bid through its wholly-owned subsidiary Talace Pvt Ltd–quoted an enterprise value of Rs 18,000 crore for the bleeding national carrier. This includes the debt of Rs 15,300 crore that it will take over and the Rs 2,700 crore cash that will flow into government coffers. The rest of AI’s Rs 61,562 crore debt (at the end of August) will be borne by the government.

Tata’s offer was nearly 40% higher than the reserve price of Rs 12,906 crore set by the government and 19% more than what rival bidder, a consortium led by SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh, had offered. Seven bidders had initially shown their interest by December 14, 2020 but five were disqualified as they did not meet the requirements set by the government. One of the disqualified bidders had approached the Delhi high court but its plea was rejected in August this year.