NOW, GOVT TO MONETISE ALLIANCE AIR, 3 OTHERS

CENTRE PLANS TO MONETISE OVER RS 14,700 CR WORTH NON-CORE ASSETS LIKE LAND

After the historic Air India privatisation, the government will now start work on monetising its four other subsidiaries, including Alliance Air, and over Rs 14,700 crore worth non-core assets like land and building, DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said.

The government on October 8 had announced that salt-to-software conglomerate Tatas have won the bid to acquire debt-laden national carrier Air India for Rs 18,000 crore.

This includes a cash payment of Rs 2,700 crore and taking over Rs 15,300 crore debt. The deal, which is expected to be completed by Decemberend, also includes sale of Air India Express and ground handling arm AISATS.

Talking to PTI, Pandey said that the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will now get down to working out a plan for monetising the subsidiaries of Air India which are with the special purpose vehicle AIAHL and setting off the liabilities.

"There will be a plan for monetising the assets of AIAHL. It is a very big task again of clearing of AIAHL liabilities and disposal of assets. In the AIAHL there is a company of ground handling, engineering and Alliance Air which have to be privatised," said Pandey, who spearheaded Air India privatisation.

"It (sale of subsidiaries) could not be started because these all are intimately linked. Unless and until Air India goes, we could not proceed with other things," he added.

As a precursor to Air India sale, the government in 2019 had set up a special purpose vehicle - Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL) - for holding debt and non-core assets of the Air India group.

Four Air India subsidiaries -- Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL), Airline Allied Services Ltd (AASL), Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) and Hotel Corporation of India Ltd (HCI) -- along with non-core assets, painting and artefacts, and other non-operational assets, was transferred to the SPV.

Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore as on August 31. Of this, Tata Sons holding company Talace Pvt Ltd will take over Rs 15300 crore and the remaining Rs 46,262 crore will be transferred to AIAHL.

Besides, non-core assets of Air India including land and building, valued at Rs 14,718 crore, are also being transferred to AIAHL.