State-owned Air-India has decided to tap the capital market through a public offering to partly fund its fleet acquisition. The board on Wednesday accorded an in-principle approval for an initial public offering, subject to government approval, A-I said in a release in Mumbai.
If the government approval comes through, Air-India would be the second national carrier to tap the capital market. On March 30, the Indian Airlines board gave its nod to float a public offer to raise resources from the capital market.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had recently said the Centre is planning to offer 20-25 per cent of its stake in both IA and AI to the public and both the national carriers will have the same status like the listed public sector oil companies on the stock exchanges. Patel has already asked the two carriers to start working towards this end so that they can launch their IPOs in the later part of 2005-06.
