New Delhi: As the Tata group is poised to acquire Air India in January 2022, the Mumbai-based $242 billion conglomerate will reportedly be receiving a stake in Kerala’s Cochin airport.
The southern airport is a strategic centre and the third biggest airport in India in terms of international passenger traffic connecting India to West Asian countries, which have a significant number of Indian migrant workers. Additionally, private carrier IndiGo, along with Air India and Air India Express, also uses Cochin to ferry rewarding ‘Malayali Gulf traffic’ to multiple places such as Jeddah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Sharjah, Doha, Kuwait, among other locations. More importantly, the Tatas would become the only carrier to have an operational stake in a major Indian airport, according to a report in Business Standard.
Citing regulatory information, the daily mentioned that Air India has a 3 per cent stake in Cochin International Airport, and this stake has not been transferred to Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL) as part of the pre-sale restructuring plan, under which select assets and debts of the national carrier have been removed from the books of AIAHL.
The stake in Cochin Airport will be with the buyer, as per the disinvestment documents released by the Centre. The cars-to-coffee conglomerate, however, will not get Air India’s stake in some other ventures such as Hotel Corporation of India, Air India Engineering Services, Airline Allied Services and Air India Transport Services. Air India had infused Rs 45 crore in Cochin Airport, while its stake in the above-mentioned entities is Rs 818 crore.
ETNOWNews.com has not verified the newspaper report, and cannot vouch for its accuracy.
In October, the Centre had signed a share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of Air India for Rs 18,000 crore. Earlier, the government had accepted an offer by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of the Tatas, to pay Rs 2,700 crore cash and take over Rs 15,300 crore of the airline's debt.
After the transfer of Cochin airport’s stake to Tatas, State Bank of India (SBI), Bharat Petroleum and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) will collectively hold a 10 per cent stake. One of Kerala’s private spice merchants, a state bank and a billionaire family from Abu Dhabi have stakes as private non-promoting shareholders.
01/12/21 ETNowNews.com
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