Three investors show interest in Air India | Economic Times

Air India, for now, has received interest from three investors that include interest from employees of Air India. End-of-day today is the last day for submission of interest for Air India.While the Tata Group has shown interest in buying the national carrier, over 200 employees of Air India have also shown interest along with an unknown investor. Interups Inc, a US-based firm that specialises in turning around assets, is the third company to have shown interest.Post the submission of bids from employees’ side, Meenakshi Malik, director-commercial at Air India told ET that their bid is along with an investor, who would like to stay anonymous today.“We are not revealing the name of the investor yet. We have just submitted our bids for Air India,” Malik told ET.Interups Chairman Laxmi Prasad confirmed to ET that they will submit their EoI today adding that willing employees will be offered 51% in the airline.“Willing and continuing employees will be offered 51% in the consortium that acquires the airline. No capital investment is required,” Prasad told ET.“We are proposing Air India Limited to continue as is with employees to own 51% and Interups NRI group to own 49%, capital completely invested by the NRIs. Nothing could be a better deal than this in our terms,” he further said.With this, Air India has already received interest from three set of investors – the Tata Group being the most preferable among them.The government, after it failed to find any takers for 76% stake in Air India in 2018, and then kept extending the due date for the current 100% stake in the national carrier due to COVID seems to have received more than expected interest.The government has called interested parties to bid for 100% in Air India and its low-cost international subsidiary Air India Express and 50% stake in AISATS – a ground handling company.