Interups withdraws bid for Air India

Monday, 30 Dec, 2020 0

One of the main bidders for Air India has decided to withdraw.

US based Interups Inc pulled out of the bidding process on the deadline to submit physical expression of interest documents.

It had already submitted an initial EoI online.

I had originally proposed buying a 49% stake in association with a group of employees who have bid for a 51% shareholding.

Interups said the tie-up could have resulted in ‘potential legal disqualification’ under government rules.

Although it will not formally bid, it will still back the employee group.

"Instead of filing we have rather chosen to support the employees who already have filed their bid as we are offered an opinion that filing a separate bid with same affiliation may disqualify the interested bidder. This will leave only one potential bidder," said Interrups Chairman, Laxmi Prasad.

More than 200 employees of the airline have submitted an EoI to bid for the airline.

Their bid is spearheaded by AI’s Commercial Director and board member Meenakshi Mallik.

EoIs are currently being appraised by the Ministry of Finance and a shortlist of qualified bidders will be announced in the new year.

The other bidder and front-runner is Tata Sons, which owns majority stakes in airlines Vistara and AiraAsia India.

Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Editor

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TravelMole Editorial Team

Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.

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