From the archives - Arun Shourie on Indian Airlines Disinvestment - August 27, 2001

New Delhi: The government said on monday it has not tried to find out why bidders like air france-delta airlines, swiss air group and emirates - who had submitted expressions of interest (eoi) for disinvestment of air-india - withdrew from the process thereafter. in a written reply in rajya sabha, minister of state for disinvestment arun shourie said these three bidders had in fact submitted their eois and obtained bid packs but withdrew later without assigning any reason.

On whether the government had tried to find out the reasons for these bidders' loss of interest in the disinvestment process, the minister replied in the negative. replying to another question, shourie denied that the withdrawal of these bidders was in any way related to the draft shareholders' agreement and share purchase agreement for ai disinvestment, saying "the parties who withdrew from the bidding process did so for their own internal reasons and they did not mention the conditions of the draft shareholders' agreement and share purchase agreement as the reasons for theor withdrawal". he said british airways-quantas had also expressed interest in the initial stages of a-i disinvestment but did not confirm its participation and later withdrew. tata-sia: on the issue of tata-singapore airline being the sole bidder left for a-i, the minister said it was not uncommon under standard government procedures to accept single bid offers provided the bidding process was duly advertised and the offer received found to be competitive. "to ensure competitiveness (even in the likelihood of a single bid offer) the reserve price of the government would be determined through an objective evaluation process," he said. hci: in reply to another question, shourie said there was no proposal to insert a clause in air-india shareholder's agreement stipulating that proceeds from the sale of its subsidiary, the hotel corporation of india (hci), would accrue proportionately to a-i's shareholders on the latter's privatisation. cmc: shourie said due diligence has been completed by parties interested in the disinvestment process of cmc ltd and both, the shareholder and the share purchase agreements, are ready.

No idea why other AI bidders withdrew Shourie