Business tycoon Anand Mahindra has praised the Central government’s efforts pertaining to Air India disinvestment. The industrialist wrote that Air India’s disinvestment ‘amounts to reset of the Indian business environment’.
Yesterday, Tata Group became the winning bidder for Air India. Tata Group holding company, Tata Sons Pvt Ltd, through its wholly-owned unit Talace Pvt Ltd, submitted a winning bid of ₹18,000 crore as the enterprise value of Air India, against a reserve price of ₹12,906 crore.
This was the second attempt by the PM Narendra Modi administration to privatise Air India. An initial sale attempt by the government in 2018 failed to attract any bidders.
Yesterday’s sale marks the return of Air India to the Tata group, a pioneer in Indian commercial aviation when it first launched the airline in 1932 before it was taken over by the government in 1953.
Following the mega announcement, the group’s chairman emeritus Ratan Tata shared an emotional note with an old picture of JRD Tata. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata founded Air India in 1932 and named it Tata Airlines.
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,” he added.
Ratan Tata also thanked the government for its recent policy of opening select industries to the private sector.
Thereafter Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra also shared Ratan Tata’s tweet and lauded the Centre for renewing faith in the potential efficiency of the private sector.
“I may be accused of overstating the importance of this event but I think this divestment amounts to a ‘reset’ of the Indian business environment. Yes, the Govt. is dispensing of a cash drain; But it’s also renewing faith-after decades-in the potential efficiency of the Pvt. sector,” Anand Mahindra wrote on Twitter.
Source: Live Mint