Govt to put Air India’s ground handling, engineering units on sale soon

Reports citing people with knowledge of the matter said the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) last week conducted the road shows for AI Airport Services (AIASL) and AI Engineering Services (AIESL) to analyse bidders' interest.

The Centre may invite expressions of interest (EoI) by next month, in order to complete the sale of the two unsold units of Air India by this fiscal. 

Consultancy firm EY is the transaction advisor for the sale process.

Reports said the road shows attracted major players. For the ground handling unit, Indian companies like the Bird group and Tata Sons took part along with some major international companies like Swiss ground handling company Swissport and Turkish firm Celebi Aviation Holding. The road show for AI Engineering Services also saw participation from Tata Sons and the Adani group.

These road shows are being organised so as to take feedback from the industry so that the EoIs can be made in a way to get more response, said government officials. 

Government has appointed two agencies to physically verify and tag the assets of the two companies that lie across airports in India.

Meanwhile, industry executives are of the view that the Centre should put both the companies on the block as soon as possible as the companies derive values by virtue of Air India being their largest customer. The share purchase agreement entered between Tata Sons and the government during Air India’s disinvestment has a lock-in period of 3 years during which the carrier is required to continue its business with the ground handling and engineering unit

As part of the divestment process, the government had transferred four of Air India’s former subsidiaries - AI Air Airport Services, Airline Allied Services or Alliance Air, AI Engineering Services and Hotel Corporation of India - along with non-core assets and other non-operational assets, to a special purpose vehicle AI Assets Holdings.