June 29, 2006
Three in race for Air-India, Indian merger
The Air-India board sub-committee, which is considering the appointment of consultants to prepare a roadmap for merger of Air-India and Indian, shortlisted three consortia for the purpose.
The final decision on appointment of a consultant is likely to be taken by the second week of July, airline sources said
The shortlisted consortia are Accenture with Ambit Corporate Finance; ICICI Securities in association with Deloitte Touche Dohmatsu, N M Rothschild, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and M V Kini; and JM Morgan Stanley and at Kearney with Amarchand Mangaldas.
The three parties would be given the detailed terms of reference to enable them to submit their final technical and financial bids, the sources said.
The board sub-committee would meet again in July second week to consider these bids and take a final decision on the appointment.
Altogether seven parties made their presentations to the board sub-committee yesterday and today.
Earlier, Air-India Chairman and Managing Director V Thulasidass had said that the selected consultant was likely to be given three months to prepare the roadmap
The consultant would also suggest whether, how and when the public sector airlines would enter the market by issuing Initial Public Offer (IPO) to raise resources.