Qatar Airways Denies Involvement In Air India Acquisition

Qatar Airways, on Wednesday, denied media reports of its supposed joint bid for acquiring state-run beleaguered airline Air India, along with InterGlobe Aviation-run IndiGo. Earlier in the day, a Financial Express report stated that low-cost carrier IndiGo and Qatar Airways were likely to make a joint bid to acquire Air India, which is in the process of being privatised. The media report, citing sources, had said that the two airlines would be required to meet a net worth criteria, which was likely to be fixed at Rs 1,000 crore.

"Qatar Airways firmly denies that it is involved in any talks regarding the acquisition of Air India," said an official statement issued by Qatar's national airline.

Ever since the government cleared a proposal to sell the debt-run Air India, several companies have expressed an interest in buying some of its businesses. In January, the government gave its nod for a proposal to allow foreign investors to own up to 49 percent of Air India. InterGlobe Aviation, Tata Group and Turkey's Celebi Aviation Holdings have expressed an interest in acquiring the carrier since then.

Air India has six subsidiaries - three of which are loss-making - with assets worth about $4.6 billion. It has an estimated $1.24 billion worth of real estate, including hotels, according to a report by news agency Reuters.

The government has injected $3.6 billion since 2012 to bail out Air India which was founded in the 1930s and is known to generations of Indians for its Maharajah mascot.

The carrier's debt has ballooned to $8.5 billion and the government plans to transfer part of this into a separate unit before selling a stake in the carrier.

Recently, the government said that it will transfer part of Air India's $8.5 billion debt pile to a special purpose vehicle before selling a stake. Minister of State for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said the government had already decided to split the debt into sustainable and unsustainable debt. "The unsustainable part will be with the special purpose vehicle (SPV)," he had said.