NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry today said it was expecting better participation for the Air India stake sale and indicated that there could be a rethink on the strategy after the disinvestment failed to attract any initial bids.The deadline for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) ended today and did not elicit any response from potential bidders. "As informed by the Transaction Adviser, no response has been received for the Expression of Interest floated for the strategic disinvestment of Air India," the civil aviation ministry said in a tweet. "Further course of action will be decided appropriately," it added.EY is the transaction adviser for the process.The government has proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players, as per the preliminary information memorandum.The transaction will involve Air India, its low cost arm Air India Express and Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd. The latter is an equal joint venture between the national carrier and Singapore-based SATS Ltd.The ailing airline's total debt stood at over Rs 48,000 crore at the end of March 2017.In April, both IndiGo and Jet Airways had said that they would not be participating in the Air India disinvestment process. IndiGo was the first to evince interest in Air India disinvestment when the government had mooted the plan last year.

Source: Economic Times May 31, 2018 14:37 UTC