The other two bids were for Rs 181.05 crore and Rs 153.15 crore. Following due deliberations, the financial bid of M/s Star9 Mobility Private Limited has been accepted by the government. CCEA had approved the strategic disinvestment of the entire GoI stake in PHL in October, 2016. The transaction had been attempted thrice in the past. In the first round, the Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) was issued on October 13, 2017 seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI). The strategic disinvestment transaction was implemented through an open, competitive bidding process supported by a multi-layered consultative decision-making mechanism involving Inter Ministerial Group, Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment and the empowered Alternative Mechanism.

The transaction now moves to the concluding stage. The next steps are issuing of the Letter of Award, signing of the Share Purchase Agreement and closing of the transaction. PHL has been incurring losses in the last three years (FY-19, FY-20 and FY-21). The company has a fleet of 42 helicopters with 41 of them owned by the company. The owned helicopters have an average age of over 20 years and three-fourths of them are presently not being manufactured by the original equipment manufacturer.

With this privatization, it is expected that the strategic buyer will revitalize the company by replacing the aging fleet through infusion of fresh capital and improve the performance of the company. The Committee comprised Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation. ONGC which holds the remaining 49 per cent has earlier decided to offer its entire shareholding to the successful bidder identified in the GoI strategic disinvestment transaction, on the same price and terms as GoI.