Air India disinvestment to take place on January 27

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Air India disinvestment to take place on January 27

A senior official at the airline stated that the company's disinvestment will take place on January 27, 2022 after a competitive bidding process last year in which the Tata Group emerged as the winner to take over Air India.

The closing balance sheet on January 20 will be provided today, January 24 so that it can be reviewed by Tata and any changes can be made on Wednesday, Vinod Hejmadi, Director Finance, Air India said in an email to employees.

The next three days will be hectic for our department and I request all of you to give your best in these last three days before we get divested. He wrote that we might have to work late in the night to complete the task given to us.

On October 8, the government had announced that Talace Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata group's holding company Tata Sons, had won the bid to acquire the debt-laden airline.

On October 11, a Letter of Intent LoI was issued to the Tata Group confirming the government's willingness to sell its 100 per cent stake in the airline. The share purchase agreement SPA was signed by the Centre on October 25.

The Tata group will also get Air India ExpressIndia Express and a 50 per cent stake in the ground handling arm Air India SATS as part of the deal. The government stated that it wanted to complete the transactions by the end of December, which included Tatas paying Rs 2,700 crore in cash. The process was delayed until January 2022.

Tatas had outbid the 15,100 crore offer by a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh and the reserve price of Rs 12,906 crore set by the government for the sale of its 100 per cent stake in the loss-making carrier.

Air India will be the third airline brand in the Tatas stable, as it holds a majority interest in AirAsia India and Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines Ltd.