The government has decided to take another shot at privatising the debt-laden Air India with relaxed terms, as a postponement of the sale process would cost the exchequer an estimated Rs 12,000 crore in the next two years.
Rules will be changed to make it easier for prospective suitors to bid on enterprise value, a popular metric used in takeover deals. Enterprise value includes the equity value of a company along with short-term and long-term debt as well as any cash on the company's balance sheet.
This, the government believes, will entice buyers who till now had considered the debt amount as