After three unsuccessful attempts at disinvested its stake in the Helicopter Services Provider, the Government Friday Approved the Sale of Pawan Hans Ltd Along with Management Control to Star9 Mobility PVT Ltd-A Three-Way Consortium Between Big Charter Big Charter Big Charter Private Almas Global Opportunity Fund SPC.

This disinvestment is the second big sales of the government’s flight portfolio in the last 12 months – Air India went to Tata Group in January this year.

Pawan Hans, who currently operates 42 helicopters, is a joint effort of 51:49 between the Government and Oil & Natural Gas Corp of the previous state -owned Ltd, Ongc has decided to offer all its share ownership to successful bidders identified in the government’s strategic release of the government transaction, with the same price and requirements as the government. In December last year, the government received three financial offers for the company.

“M/S STAR9 Mobility Private Ltd, Consortium M/S Large Limited Private Charter, M/S Maharaja Aviation Private Limited and M/S Almas Global Opportunity Fund SPC, emerged as the highest bidder quoting RS 211.14 Crore, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above Hospital 211.14, which is above, which is above, which is above, which is above RS 211.14, which is above, which is above, which is above Hospital 211.14 reserve prices, “the Ministry of Finance said in a press release. “Two other offers are RS 181.05 Crore and RS 153.15 Crore. After deliberation, M/S Star9 Mobility Private Limited’s financial offers have been received by the government, “he said.

Big Charter PVT Ltd -based in Mumbai runs the ‘Flybig’ airline, which operates on the Udan route, while Maharaja Aviation PVT LTD based in Delhi is a Helicopter charter company. Almas Global Opportunity Fund is a fund based in the Cayman Islands managed by Almas Capital based in Dubai.

The consortium offer was also given permission by an alternative mechanism to invest Pawan Hans. The alternative mechanism consists of Jalan Nitin Gadkari Minister, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

“Strategic investment release transactions are carried out through an open competitive offering process supported by multi-layered consultative decision making mechanisms involving inter-statement groups, the secretary core group regarding the release of investment and an empowered alternative mechanism,” the official statement said.

In the future, the government will now issue an award letter, which will be followed by signing a stock purchase agreement and closing the transaction.

In October 2016, the cabinet committee on economic affairs had approved the strategic release of all government shares in Pawan Hans and posted that the government made three efforts to release investment that did not produce results.

In the first round, the Memorandum of Preliminary Information (PIM) was issued in October 2017, looking for flower expressions (EOI). Of the four EOI received, only one was declared eligible and the transaction was canceled.

In the second half, PIM was issued to look for EOI in April 2018 and two bidders were found to be eligible and issued proposal requests (RFP). Finally, a single offer that is incomplete, is not in accordance with the RFP, accepted.

In the third round, PIM was issued to find Eois in July 2019. However, of the four EOI received, only one was found to meet the requirements and the process was canceled again.

In the fourth iteration, the government invited EOIS on December 8, 2020. Seven EOI were accepted and four bidders who were interested were chosen as qualified bidders. After the detailed complete test, the qualified bidder was invited to submit a financial offer, which took part in three financial offers received.