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The Ministry of Civil Aviation is all set to take Cabinet approval to sell the residual stake held by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore airports.
This is part of the Ministry’s plan to raise ₹20,000 crore in FY22 by divesting government’s stake across various airports in the country.
Asset monetisation
“In addition to the stake sale in the four metro cities, Cabinet approval will also be taken for monetisation of 13 airports currently under AAI. Transaction advisors have already been appointed. These 13 airports will be monetised through the Operation, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) model,” said a top source.
According to sources, the proposal to exit from the four metro airports was presented by MoCA officials at a recently held meeting of the Core Group of Secretaries for Asset Monetisation. “MoCA will obtain requisite approvals for divestment of AAI’s equity stake in the Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad airport joint ventures,” said a source aware of the meeting proceedings.
Currently, AAI owns a minority stake of 26 per cent each in the Delhi and Mumbai airports and 13 per cent stake each in Hyderabad and Bangalore airports.
OMDA model
In 2006, the GMR group, as part of a consortium, had signed an OMDA for the Delhi airport with AAI. Along with this, GMR also has a majority stake in the Hyderabad airport.
The existing joint venture partners will now get an opportunity to buy out the remaining stake from the Government. However, it’s not clear if the existing partners will get a first right of refusal to acquire the stake or whether the Government will invite open bids.
During the meeting, it was also proposed that the government divest its stakes in 13 other airports out of the approximately 125 airports owned by the AAI. However, it was proposed to explore the possibility of clubbing profitable and non-profitable airports to make the package attractive for both the bidders and the Government.
Under the airport privatisation scheme of the Government, the Adani Group has already been given contracts for six airports: Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram and Guwahati. The group is expected to bid for another 6-7 airports in the next round of privatisation.
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