Tata Sons To Hold 49% Stake In AirAsia India

Mumbai: Tata Sons will hike its stake in AirAsia India to 49 per cent by acquiring additional shares from Arun Bhatia’s Telestra, which will be exiting the venture amid concerns over ownership and control at the low cost carrier.

Telestra Tradeplace currently holds nearly ten per cent stake in AirAsia India. While Tata Sons would buy 7.94 per cent shareholding, the remaining stake would be purchased by the carrier’s two directors — Subramanian Ramadorai and Ramaswamy Venkataramanan, in their individual capacity.

The sudden change comes after news of Arun Bhatia expressing unhappiness over the state of affairs at the carrier surfaced in the industry. Besides, there have been concerns in certain quarters about control and ownership at the airline.

Tata Sons released a statement saying that the deal is expected to get completed next month, and is subjected to relevant corporate approvals and processes.

Since its inception, AirAsia India has witnessed exits from some high profile businessmen like Vijay Gopalan, former chief financial officer and Gaurav Rathore, former commercial officer.

AirAsia India, which began operations in June 2014, is now a three way joint venture. 

AirAsia India has a fleet of six aircraft, covering 12 routes and carrying over 1.8 million passengers. In 2014, AirAsia carried 3.28 lakh passengers in the domestic market which subsequently increased by 329.87 per cent to 14.10 lakh passengers in 2015. This is significant lower than most of its peers. Last August, Tata Sons had acquired ten per cent stake from Telestra which took the former’s overall shareholding then to little over 41 per cent.