The strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans Ltd. has been postponed by the Centre, more specifically by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM). This choice was made following the disqualification of Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd, one of the consortium’s members that submitted a winning proposal.
Maharaja Aviation, Big Charter, and Almas Global Opportunity Fund (AGOF) are the three entities that make up the partnership known as Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd.
Due to unfavourable decisions made by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd was disqualified. In a different resolution case, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) also brought a complaint against AGOF. In light of these facts, the Centre made the decision to scrap the expression of interest (EoI) procedure for Pawan Hans’ strategic divestiture.
The complaint submitted by IBBI as well as the unfavourable decisions from NCLT and NCLAT were all carefully considered by the administration. Based on these elements and in line with the terms of the Request for Proposal (RFP) and Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM), the government came to the conclusion that the successful bidder would be disqualified if adverse orders were made against a consortium member. Through a show cause notice, the winning bidder, Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd, was given the chance to contest the disqualification.
After giving the issue some thought, the government made the decision to exclude Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd from Pawan Hans Ltd’s strategic disinvestment process with the support of the Alternative Mechanism (authorised by the cabinet committee on economic affairs), which was made up of the ministers of transport and highways, finance, and civil aviation. As a result, the strategic disinvestment’s present EoI procedure has been scrapped.
It’s important to remember that on April 29 of the previous year, the government approved Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd, the highest bidder among the groups composed of Maharaja Aviation, Big Charter, and AGOF, to purchase Pawan Hans from the government for INR 211 crore, representing a sale of the government’s entire 100% equity stake in Pawan Hans.
Source- travel biz
Link- https://travelbizmonitor.com/centre-cancels-pawan-hans-stake-sale-after-disqualifying-bidder/