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Bids For Pawan Hans To Be Submitted By March 6

The process of Pawan Hans sale should get over by March, an official said.

Pawan Hans’ helicopter service in Vizianagar, Andhra Pradesh. (Source: Pawan Hans’ Twitter Handle)
Pawan Hans’ helicopter service in Vizianagar, Andhra Pradesh. (Source: Pawan Hans’ Twitter Handle)

Shortlisted bidders of Pawan Hans Ltd. have time till March 6 to submit their financial bids for the government and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.’s stake in the helicopter service provider, an official said.

Separately, the transaction advisor has worked out a reserve price for Pawan Hans which will be submitted to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The MoCA will then send the reserve price to the Evaluation Committee, which comprises financial advisors and joint secretaries from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management and Chairman and Managing Director of the Central Public Sector Enterprise.

"We have asked for submission of financial bids by March 6. After the Core Group on Disinvestment or the alternative mechanism decides on the reserve price, the financial bids of shortlisted bidders would be opened," an official said.

The official further said that the process of Pawan Hans sale should get over by March.

A meeting of the alternative mechanism on strategic disinvestment headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu, had cleared the final share purchase agreement and financial bids have been called for.

The government holds 51 percent stake in Pawan Hans, which has a fleet of 46 choppers. The remaining 49 percent is with state-run ONGC.

The draft SPA and Request for Proposal was circulated to shortlisted bidders on Dec. 21, 2018, and a four-week time was given to them seeking comments.

In April last year, the government had issued the information memorandum for the 51 percent strategic stake sale in Pawan Hans and had sought expression of interest from interested bidders by June 18.

Thereafter, the ONGC board in July decided to combine its 49 percent stake in the offer for sale by Government of India.

Following this, in August, the government invited fresh bids from entities, saying that along with its 51 percent stake, the bidders will also have the option to buy ONGC's stake of 49 percent in the company. The last date for submission of bids was Sep. 12.

However, the total number of bidders have not made public to maintain confidentiality of the bidding process.