AAI's stake offloading on hold

New Delhi: The government has decided to temporarily defer the proposed sale of AAI's stakes in the private joint ventures (JVs) operating the airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, according to a senior official.

State-owned Airport Authority of India's (AAI) residual stakes in the four major airports are to be sold under the government's ambitious National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that was announced in August last year. NMP estimates aggregate monetisation potential of Rs6 lakh crore through core assets of the central government over a four-year period from FY 2022 to FY 2025. The AAI holds 26 per cent stake each in joint ventures that operate Delhi and Mumbai airports. It owns 13 per cent shareholding each in the joint ventures that operate Hyderabad and Bangalore airports. The senior government official told PTI that the Union Finance Ministry has decided to defer for now the sale of the AAI's residual stakes in these four joint ventures as the valuations could be lower now.

Specific details could not be immediately ascertained. A query sent to DIPAM seeking comments on the decision remained unanswered. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) comes under the finance ministry. Under the NMP, a total of 25 airports and the AAI's residual stakes in the four airport joint ventures have been considered. The overall value of these assets was estimated at Rs20,782 crore for FY 2022-25.

"Out of this, Rs10,000 crore of monetisation value has been tentatively considered on account of divestment of AAI stake in private joint venture airports. The same has been phased out equally over FY22 and FY23. It may be noted that the actual realisation from AAI stake sale will depend on multiple factors such as transaction timing, market conditions, investor appetite and transaction terms," as per the NMP document that was released in August 2021.

For determining the indicative value of AAI's stake in the four private joint ventures, a market approach has been adopted. The NMP has been developed by NITI Aayog, in consultation with infrastructure line ministries, based on the mandate for asset monetisation under Union Budget 2021-22.