Air India gets CCI nod to acquire entire stake in AirAsia India

Competition Commission of India has announced that the proposed acquisition of the entire stake of AirAsia India Limited by Air India Limited has been approved. According to a notification filed by the Fair Trade Commission, the planned combination involves Air India Limited (AIL), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Private Limited (TSPL), holding the entire equity of AirAsia (India) Private Limited. acquires share capital. ,

AirAsia India is a joint venture between TSPL and Air India Investment Limited (AAIL), in which TSPL currently holds 83.67 percent and AAIL holds 16.33 percent.

AIL, along with its wholly owned subsidiary Air India Express Limited (AEXL), is primarily engaged in the business of providing domestic scheduled air passenger transport services, international scheduled air passenger transport services, air cargo transport services and charter flight services in India. happened. ,

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AirAsia India, which started flying in June 2014, provides scheduled air passenger transport, air cargo transport and charter flight services in the country. It has no international operations.

The Competition Commission of India said in a tweet on Tuesday that it has approved the acquisition of entire shareholding in Air Asia India by Air India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons.

Full-service carrier Air India and its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express were acquired last year by Tales Pvt Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Pvt Ltd.

In addition, Tata operates the full-service airline Vistara in a joint venture with Singapore Airlines.

Tata had acquired Air India and Air India Express in January this year. In October 2021, Tata emerged as the winning bidder for loss-making Air India. It offered a bid of Rs 18,000 crore, which includes a cash payment of Rs 2,700 crore and the carrier’s debt of Rs 15,300 crore.

Transactions above a certain threshold require the approval of the CCI, which works to promote competition as well as curb anti-competitive practices in the market.

With inputs from PTI