Pawan Hans Disinvestment: Govt Calls Off Strategic Sale, Disqualifies Winning Bidder – News18

The government has decided to call off the strategic disinvestment of helicopter services providing company Pawan Hans as the successful bidding consortium Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd was disqualified amid pending legal cases, according to a statement by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on Monday. Pawan Hans is a 51:49 joint venture of the government and ONGC.

“…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 in terms of provisions of PIM and RFP. Further, the current EoI (expression of interest) process for strategic disinvestment stands annulled,” DIPAM said in the statement.

In April 2022, the central government had approved the sale of its stake in Pawan Hans Ltd along with its management control to Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd for an amount of Rs 211 crore. Star9 Mobility Pvt Ltd is a consortium of Maharaja Aviation Pvt Ltd, Big Charter Pvt Ltd and Almas Global Opportunity Fund (AGOF).

According to the DIPAM statement on Monday, “Subsequently, it became known that the NCLT, Kolkata Bench, had recently issued an adverse order against AGOF, a member of the successful consortium, in another case relating to a resolution plan under the IBC. Considering the adverse order of NCLT, the Letter of Intent (LoI) was not issued in favor of the successful bidder.”

Meanwhile, DIPAM added, the concerned consortium member filed an appeal against the NCLT order in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Principal Bench, New Delhi. NCLAT dismissed the appeal and upheld the original order of NCLT and directed that the NCLT order be forwarded to MCA and IBBI for their consideration on initiation of complaint under Sections 74(3) and 236 of Indian Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

After consideration, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has filed a complaint against the concerned consortium member in the special court, DIPAM said.

It added, “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 under the provisions of PIM and RFP. Due opportunity was provided to the successful bidder to respond to the disqualification through a show cause notice.”

It said the government has decided to disqualify the successful bidding consortium “after careful consideration of the response of the successful bidder to the Show Cause Notice, with the approval of Alternative Mechanism (duly empowered by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) comprising Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Minister of Finance and Minister of Civil Aviation”.