209 Air India Employees Bid For Acquiring 51% Stake In State Carrier By Investing Rs 1 Lakh Each

At the start of this month, we had informed you of reports coming in that stated Air India employees’ speculations of bidding in the national carrier’s disinvestment drive, by contributing Rs 1,00,000 from each of its 14,000 employees.

In continuation, it has been reported that a group of 209 employees of Air India has successfully submitted an expression of interest (EOI) for the national carrier in partnership with a private financier.

Let’s dive deep into it.

Air Ind Employees Submit an EOI

A group of 209 Air India employees, in partnership with private financier have submitted an EOI for the national carrier.

The present commercial director of the carrier, Meenakshi Mallik is leading this bid process and states, “We have submitted an EoI along with a partner who will give us financial backing.”

However, as per the disinvestment guidelines, Air India is allowed to partner either with  a bank or a financial institution, and not any private company.

Each Employee to Bid Rs 1 Lakh

Besides the financial backing provided by the private partner, each of the 209 Air India employees participating in this drive is required to contribute no more than Rs 1 lakh towards the bid.

As per the plan, the consortium will hold a 51% controlling stake, while the private investor will hold 49% stake in the entry.

Malik had previously added, ‘Only after successfully completing stage one, we will be planning our bid in such a way that no single employee will have to take on a financial risk or contribute more than Rs 1,00,000.”

Many Employees Being Advised from Pooling In Their Money

Despite upto 209 employees, including the commercial director of Air India forming up a consortium to bid in the Air India disinvestment drive, a large section of Air India employees are being addressed to not get involved in the bid process.

This pool of employees mainly include pilots and cabin crew unions like IPG and ICPA. They have advised their members to not participate in the airline’s disinvestment process.

This is because the management has still not addressed their concerns over “disproportionate” pay cuts, which have been in effect since April this year.