NEW DELHI: Tata Group’s takeover of national carrier Air India is likely to be delayed by a month as the completion of procedures is taking longer than expected.
Tatas, which won the bid for the airline in October ’21, was supposed to get the ownership of the airline by December this year but now it is pushed to late January 2022.
“Some regulatory approvals are yet to come in for the handover, and certain formalities are yet to be completed… The process will most likely be completed by January,” said an official requesting anonymity.
The government, after a failed attempt in 2018, had signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons in October for the sale of loss-making Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. It was agreed that the Tatas would pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and takeover Rs 15,300 crore of the airline’s debt.
As of August 31, Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore. Out of this, 75% of this debt or Rs 46,262 crore will be transferred to a special purpose vehicle before handing over to the Tata Group which had started the airline way back in 1930s.
Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran recently called the group winning the bid for Air India as its most significant milestone in 2021.
Meanwhile, oil marketing company Indian Oil (IOC) said that Air India has cleared around 80% of its pending dues to oil marketing companies.
IOC has received Rs 2,281 crore from Air India. IOC added that the balance settlement is under process for which modalities have been initiated in view of the handing over process of Air India.