New Delhi, Sept 18 : To make Air India an attractive prospect, the government might disinvest by removing the working capital debt, halving the debt burden on the acquirer, reported The Economic Times.
After the proposal is discussed by a ministerial group, the sale of the carrier will leave the acquirer with loans of just Rs 15,000 crore that were taken to buy the planes. The ministerial group that will discuss the divestment is headed by Home Minister Amit Shah with members including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.
The government was unable to sell the airline in 2018 and was prepared to reduce the Rs 59,000-crore debt by transferring Rs 29,400 crore of debt in 2018 to a special purpose vehicle (SPV). There was a proposal to slash Rs 15,000 crore in the working capital debt.
A government official told the daily that reducing debt would attract bidders this time but the decision itself might have a political fallout. Some bidders are expected to be Indians as experts thought that the Rs 29,400-crore debt needed further reduction to attract them.
This time, the stake sale might comprise of 100 percent in the airline after the 2018 attempt to sell 76 percent which, some believe, might have stopped foreign investors as the government held 24 percent in the previous sale attempt
While Puri has said that he expected more interest in the national airline, the grounding of Jet Airways has taken out the main competitor in the full-service space.
