New Delhi: After a wait of nearly 67 years today, Tata sons successfully re-acquired the reins of state-owned Air India. The conglomerate outbid Spicejet founder Ajay Singh emerged as the front runner during the bidding. The airlines on the brink of collapsing now would head towards success after being taken over by India’s biggest business houses with deep financial power after several attempts. Along with a 100% stake in Air India, the Tata Group would also possess 50% stakes in ground handling staff.
Taking to his Twitter handle, Ratan Tata wrote- “The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great news! While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hopefully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata group’s presence in the aviation industry.”
“On an emotional note, Air India, under the leadership of Mr JRD Tata had, at one time, gained the reputation of being one of the most prestigious airlines in the world. Tatas will have the opportunity of regaining the image and reputation it enjoyed in earlier years. Mr JRD Tata would have been overjoyed if he was in our midst today, the tweet further read.
The Tata group placed a bid of Rs 18,000 crore outbidding other private jet owners and government firms. Along with the assets, the new owner will also take on around Rs 15,300 crore debt of the loss-making airlines that it will pay. However, the residual debt of Rs 2,700 would b paid by the govt in cash.