No Final Offer, No Withdrawal Either: Sia

Singapore International Airlines (SIA) today said it has neither submitted the final offer for participating in Air-India (A-I) disinvestment nor given any notice of withdrawal from the process.

The official spokesperson for the airline was responding to reports that SIA was considering a pull out from the race for A-I.

The Tata-SIA combine is the only bidder in the fray for the government's 40 per cent stake in the loss-making national carrier.

SIA has, however, not categorically denied that it was exploring a withdrawal from A-I bid.

Senior government officials said that, throughout the day, SIA had not contacted them formally or informally to either withdraw their bids or deny the reports.

A senior official who has been interacting with SIA executives however, added that the unhealthy economic scenario -- where several international companies in the power and telecom sector have pulled out of India over the past few months -- could have been a cause for concern for SIA.