The two airlines - Qatar Airways and IndiGo - denied media reports which stated that they will jointly bid for Air India.

Share Market Live

NSE

“Qatar Airways firmly denies that it is involved in any talks regarding the acquisition of Air India,” the airline said in a statement.

" While IndiGo normally does not respond to rumours, in this particular instance we would like to state that there are no ongoing discussions of this nature," IndiGo said.

On Tuesday, media reports stated that low-cost carrier IndiGo was likely to make a bid along with Qatar’s national carrier, Qatar Airways, in a consortium for Air India. The consortium norm, according to the reports, says that interested airline bidders for Air India can have a negative net worth with at least one of the partners in the consortium having a positive one. Therefore pointing that the airlines can come together with a private equity partner or a sovereign wealth fund. Qatar Airways is owned by a sovereign fund making it easier for IndiGo to enter the bidding process.

Qatar Airways chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker had announced plans in 2017 to start a domestic airline in India, with at least 100 planes on the runway. This move can give the airline a wider access to the fastest growing aviation market. The chief had earlier expressed that he was not interested in acquiring a stake in Air India.

IndiGo, by far is the only airline which explicitly expressed interest in acquiring Air India. The airline itself is keenly looking to expand its operations in the global market and hence said that it was more interested Air India's international operations.

Jet Airways and Vistara, a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines, have also expressed their interest in acquiring the state-owned airline. Jet Airways has said that they are currently holding talks with their partners - Air France-KLM and Delta regarding the stake purchase. Vistara said that they are looking into the process of evaluating a bid for Air India.

Business Standard's sources have said that the government is likely to relax the eligibility criteria for Air India disinvestment by allowing airlines with negative net worth to bid. However, non-airline companies can be asked to satisfy the minimum net worth criteria to declare their financial health. The sources added that the Air India evaluation committee had suggested that the bidders are required to fulfil the minimum net worth criterion.

The Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment (CGD), however, said that this norm will block the chances of many airlines to enter the bidding process.

First Published:Mar 22, 2018 3:50 AM IST