Tata Sons is likely to take over Air India by end of August 2020
The Tata Group is likely to make a formal bid to take over state-run Air India after months of considering acquiring the national carrier that has been put on the block by the central government.
The airline was actually formed as a division of Tata Sons Ltd. in 1932 and was operated as Tata airlines until 1946. After 1946, the airline became a public limited company and it was renamed to Air India.
Reattempting the sale of Air India, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an ambitious plan of selling off Air India to private players by March 2020.
The Tata Sons, the principal investor running a conglomerate of operations under the Tata Group of companies, has already entered the airline business with domestic carrier Vistara and has been the sole bidder for Air India since last month after its joint venture airlines venture, Singapore Airlines declined to join due to COVID-19 woes.
According to reports, the company has already begun due diligence and intends to close the bid by the end of this month. However, no business structure or funding around the take-over has been discussed yet.
There are also speculations that Tata is planning to merge its exiting stake in AirAsia with Air India into a single entity. However, there has been no official confirmation of these reports.
Notably, The last date for bidding is August 31 and the government is not willing to extend the deadline. The Centre had extended the official deadline in June to submit an Express of Interest (EOI) in view of the pandemic situation.
From Tata Airlines and Air India to Vistara and AirAsia India, the Tata group has been an important part of the growing aviation sector in India.
