India Weighs Dropping Debt Condition in Flag Carrier Sale
- India mulls absorbing part of $3.3 billion aircraft debt
- No buyers have been found for loss-making, state-run Air India
Photographer: Dhiraj SIngh/Bloomberg
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India is proposing to drop a condition that the winning bidder for Air India Ltd. will have to take on $3.3 billion of aircraft debt, people with knowledge of the matter said, as the government struggles to sell the loss-making carrier kept afloat by taxpayer-funded bailouts.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is being advised to drop the rule on concern it will deter buyers, the people said, asking not to be identified as the proposal isn’t public. A group of bureaucrats has vetted the plan, and under the new proposition, potential buyers will be allowed to bid on the enterprise value and not on the entity value, the people said.