Tata Sons regained control of Air India – nearly 70 years after its nationalisation – with the government picking up the salt-to-software conglomerate as the winning bidder for the debt-laden state-run airline.
Here’s your 5-point cheatsheet to this big story:
- Tata Sons will acquire Air India, 50 per cent of Air India-Sats, and Air India Express. The government will get Rs 2,700 crore in cash from the Air India sale. The rest is the government’s debt, which Air India will take over.
- The transaction does not include non-core assets including land and building, valued at Rs 14,718 crore, which are to be transferred to the government’s holding company AIAHL.
- Air India’s total debt stands at over Rs 60,000 crore.
- Air India employees will be given voluntary retirement scheme or VRS in the second year and there will be retrenchment in the first year.
- The deal completes a full circle as Air India was founded in 1932 under the name Tata Airlines by family scion and aviation enthusiast Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata.
