The offer, announced in January, was sweetened to pass on only the debt related to plane purchases to the new owner. The airline had $8.4 billion in total debt at the end of March, 2019 and posted a loss of $1.2 billion that year—its highest ever. The airline will have to shut down if it can’t find a buyer, aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri told Parliament last year. At least two previous attempts to sell the airline —once about two decades ago and another in 2018—have flopped. In 2001, Singapore Airlines Ltd dropped its bid for a stake in Air India, citing political opposition as one of the reasons.

Source: Mint September 14, 2020 17:37 UTC