Air India’s sale to the Indian conglomerate, Tata Sons has been completed. The government has signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for divesting the national carrier. This is the first time a privatisation event has occurred in nearly two decades. According to a PTI report, on Monday, the government completed the sale of Air India to Tata Sons after signing the share purchase agreement.
“Share purchase agreement signed today by the government with the Tata Sons for strategic disinvestment of Air India,” department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a Twitter post on Monday.
Tata Sons will now have full control of the airlines which includes Air India and Air India Express. It is worth noting that Tata Sons had placed the final bid for Rs 18,000 crore for the airline. The Indian conglomerate had agreed to pay Rs 2,700 crore as upfront payment to the government and also takeover Rs 15,300 crore worth of liabilities of the company.
The reason why the government is trying to quickly hand over Air India to Tata Sons is that it has to incur a cost of Rs 20 crore every day to run it.