Air India stake attracts a lot of queries

Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) funds with adequate enterprise or managerial or technical investors in the whole consortium sort of model can come forward to participate in strategic divestments like Air India, a top Government official said in New Delhi on 19 April 2018.

“We are not looking only for an airline to takeover Air India, we have given a small carve out for airlines on how domestic airlines will be treated in terms of eligibility in a consortium but otherwise anybody who has net worth and funds can bid for Air India,” said Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Neeraj Gupta said at an ASSOCHAM Annual India Investment Conference.

“In all these disinvestment exercises also, we have kept them technically neutral, finance is the main criteria and your capability to takeover and run such an asset in financial terms is the main criteria,” he added.

He also said that the Union Government had received lot of queries from airlines and non-airlines for proposed divestment of the national carrier.

Earlier, Gupta also said that there is a thought that VCs cannot make investment in such privatisation or strategic disinvestment area which is not correct.

“You individually may not be but if you see the expression of interest being invited in these cases, the only criteria is net worth.”

Talking about the huge potential for growth in the PE and VC sector, the DIPAM secretary highlighted that from 2009 to 2016 the PEs and VCs have grown as a percentage of GDP (gross domestic product), besides both size and volume of the deals have also grown.

Adding that the government had addressed lot of issues flagged by the PEs and VCs, Gupta said, “I am not saying all the issues could have been addressed and there may be more expectations on tax and incentive side but we have to always remember that when we provide a very-very attractive, sweet carve-out for one set of investors it has the potential of being misused and tax is definitely the basis on which we can maintain financial discipline.”

He said that the government’s approach is very clear and thus it is adhering to financial discipline, even fiscal deficit is being contained to targeted numbers and the economy continues to have a glide path.

“In last few years, despite challenges and transformational decisions, the government has committed to continue to fiscal discipline and continue higher growth,” he said.

“When such an approach is there, other sources of funds in the economy become more and more important,” he added.

The DIPAM secretary also said that India remains a fastest growing economy as the government has undertaken various initiatives to build an ecosystem which is conducive for growth of inflows from domestic and foreign funds. fii-news.com