Privatisation: Govt calls off Pawan Hans sale for 3rd time as successful bidder found unfit

New Delhi: The government decided on Monday to call off the strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans due to the disqualification of the successful bidder, making it the third unsuccessful attempt for the privatisation of the helicopter service provider. The government owns a 51 percent stake in Pawan Hans, while public sector oil major ONGC holds 49 percent. In December 2020, the government had invited EoI (expression of interest) for selling Pawan Hans along with ONGC's stake.

Pawan Hans privatisation: Why was the successful bidder declared unfit?

In April 2022, it approved the highest bidder, Star9 Mobility Private Ltd, a consortium of Maharaja Aviation Pvt Ltd, Big Charter Pvt Ltd and Almas Global Opportunity Fund, as the successful bidder for sale of 100 per cent equity shareholding in Pawan Hans.

However, in May the sale process was put on hold after it came to light that the lead member of the winning bidder consortium -- Almas Global Opportunity Fund (AGOF) SPC -- has a case pending against it at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

DIPAM disqualifies bidder, annuls EoI process

In a statement, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) said on Monday that the government has examined the adverse orders of NCLT and NCLAT. "After careful consideration of the response of the successful bidder to the show cause notice, with the approval of Alternative Mechanism ...the government has decided that successful bidding consortium M/s Star 9 Mobility Pvt Ltd is disqualified from the process of strategic disinvestment of Pawan Hans Ltd... Further, the current EoI process for strategic disinvestment stands annulled," the DIPAM said.

The Alternative Mechanism comprises ministers of Road Transport & Highways, Finance and Civil Aviation.

After the consortium bidder was selected in April, it came to light that one of its members had received an adverse order from Kolkata-bench of NCLT. AGOF also did not receive a favourable ruling from the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

Later, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) also filed a complaint against the concerned consortium member in the special court.

The DIPAM statement further said that the government examined the adverse orders of NCLT and NCLAT and took note of the complaint filed by IBBI and considered that the adverse orders against a consortium member would lead to disqualification of the successful bidder. After that a show-cause notice was issued to the bidder and the response did not find favour with the panel of ministers or the alternative mechanism.

Third attempt to privatise Pawan Hans fails

This was the third attempt to privatise Pawan Hans, which did not succeed. In 2018, the government had first invited bids to sell 51 per cent stake in Pawan Hans. That bid was withdrawn after ONGC decided to sell its 49 per cent stake in the company along with the government's.

In 2019, a second attempt was made to sell Pawan Hans, but the sale process failed to receive investor response. Finally in December 2020 the third attempt was made and EoIs invited. A year later, financial bids were received for buying out the helicopter service provider.

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