Air India – Real Estate

Air India, the national carrier is ready to take off its plan for real estate monetization, as AI has finalized a deal to sell its 4 apartments in South Mumbai. After three years of gap, again Air India has finally started to sell its properties in Mumbai. Following by many unsuccessful attempts, this national carrier has finalized made a deal with public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) to sell its 4 apartments, which is located in south Mumbai and the price of deal is Rs 88 crore.

Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the sale of these properties and after that now it is expected that apartments will be handed over to the State Bank of India in the month of December 2015, as per the statement of a top official. As per the statement of an Air India spokesperson, “This is first time when we have actually made deal as per terms and conditions laid in the turnaround plan”.

All the four apartments are 3 BHK flats in Sterling Apartments with measuring carpet area of 2,033 sq ft and the property is located at Peddar Road, South Mumbai. These properties were the houses of top executives of Air India, but now these key officials of national carrier have relocated to New Delhi and after that these apartments were identified as surplus and were put up for deal with SBI.

Turnaround Plan of Air India:

For its turnaround plan, Air India also sought cabinet approval to sale its land in Kolkata which is worth Rs. 25 crore and a residential property in Mauritius (worth Rs. 3.5 crore) to the NBCC (National Building Construction Corporation). Air India, needs to sell the property or real estate assets of Rs 5,000 crore to repay the high-cost debt as well as to generate few more funds for further investment and to meet the working capital, as a part of its turnaround plan of AI. It is expected that in near future AI will sell parcels of land as well as residential and commercial properties in Indian and abroad.

Air India

Air India is surviving on a bailout package approved by the government in 2012. As part of its turnaround plans to reduce a debt burden of 40,000 crore, the grieving PSU plans to sell real estate assets worth Rs 5,000 crore to generate funds. Executing on the plans, AI has decided to sell four residential apartments in Mumbai to State Bank of India (SBI) for Rs. 90 crore.

The flats, each having a carpet area of 2033 sq ft situated at Sterling Apartments on Peddar Road in South Mumbai that hitherto housed top executives of the national carrier, will now be official residences of SBI top executives.

An AI official confirmed that the airline in August 2013 had invited bids for these flats through e-auctions and the Bank emerged as the highest bidder. “We have received a nod from the Cabinet as well as all requisite approvals to sell & transfer the rights on these flats to SBI,” said the senior Air India official.

Free office space for Indian company who is looking forward to setting up business

Nottingham is counted as the one of the lesser known or popular cities in the United Kingdom. The city has now come forward and announced that they will be offering free office space for Indian company who is looking forward to setting up business in that region. This office space will be completely free of cost for a period of two years. The main reason behind this announcement is solely to encourage all the Indian companies to look at London not just as any business location and more forward with that. As far as the city is concerned, the City Council of Nottingham comes under the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom.

The Nottingham city:

According to Nat Puri who is a Punjab-born businessperson as well as ambassador of Nottingham, the city is not limited to be only considered as the ultimate destination for setting up business but being cost effective, makes the city a much more fun place to stay in contrary to what other Indians feel, I came to the city just like that but ended up falling in love with the space. Representing the Nottingham City Council, Mr. Puri stated that the announcement is not a rumor but it is to encourage people to come to the city and own a 250 square meter office space, available in the heart of the Nottingham city. The business owner does not have a pay for atleast a year or two for that acquired office space. This move is towards breaking out the inertia and encourages Indian companies to explore the business options in the city. It is all about exploring out the business opportunities in the city.

According to Nottingham City Council’s Director of Economic Development, Chris Henning, this move is about providing soft balance for Indian companies. He further added that the city offers attractive investment platform for companies especially from India. This all can be attributed to the innovative businesses, which are developing faster than before apart from academic interest, making the city ultimate gateway for Traders in Europe. This is a long-term strategy targeted towards Indian businesses led by the council and comprises of companies like University of Nottingham and Nottingham Means Business. The main strategy is about building trust through Investment Bridge, which has proven to attract Indian businesses.

Chris also made another announcement to the University of Nottingham that requires them to work along with the Indian Consul General’s office located in Birmingham. According to Shuchita Sonalika, who is the Director and Head of CII’s UK operation; there has been a sudden increase in the interest shown by the Indian companies towards exploring business opportunities in some of the less popular area of the United Kingdom. Reports suggest that even Air India is looking forward to expanding their business around some of less known placed in the UK and might look into East Midlands airport as their hub for starting new flights. Nottingham city is known for having the highest employment rate in terms of knowledge-based services. The city council is focusing on the Nottingham city to make their regional business engagement strong.