According to the senior airline
official of Air India it is said that the government is looking to shift out
more debt from the balance sheet of disinvestment bound Air India to asset
holding firm Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL) for making further accepatable by the
prospective buyers. The government is palnning to sell their full stake (100%)
in the loss making carrier. Air India is now facing a shortage of money due to
lack of fund infusion,they are also facing monthly shortfall of Rs.220 crore in
there operations. Inorder to make the disinvestment more attractive the carrier(a
special purpose vehicle SPV) has already transferred Rs29,474 crore of debt to
Air India Asset Holding.
On Monday
conference ,Civil Aviation Secretary pradeep Singh Kharoola said that Earlier ,
their plan was to sell debts in proportion to assets, as part of it they have
transferred about half of the total debt to AIAHL.Now they are evaluating if
they can take more debt from balance sheet by selling the SPV(special purpose
vehicle). They also added that the government is now looking to make the deal
more attractive or acceptable by the buyers. Air India is now seeking Govt. approval
to raise a Rs.2000 crore loan and refinance $819 million aircraft debt , which
is an relaxation for the financial crisis. The officials said that Air India is
such that any person or organisation will be able to make it sustainable and if
he feels that he can invest and improve profitability.
Air
India received an offer from a consortium of four banks to refinance the $819
million bridge loan taken for acquiring six Boeing 787 and one Boeing 777
aircraft. Presently Air India has a debt for about more than Rs58000 crore. The
airlines net loss in the year 2018-19 is estimated of about Rs.8556.35 crore. An
industry expert told that the airline cannot be given for free and that any
prospective buyer will have take the burden of some part of the total debt. At present
Air India owns over 60 planes out of thet total of 127 in the fleet , which are
treated as good assets. On December 12 , Minister of state for Civil Aviation
Hardeep Singh Puri said that after formation of new government , Air India
Specific Alternative Mechanisim (AISAM)has been rconstituted,the reinititation
of disinvestment of Air India has been approved.AISAM has approved 100% sale of
govt. of India stake in Air India for the reinititated strategic disinvestment
of Air India, he said on Lok Sabha.
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