Business News: NCLT gives green light to Air India-Vistara merger

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has given the green light to the merger of Air India and Vistara, setting the stage for the formation of one of the world’s largest airline groups. This landmark decision, announced in November 2022, will see Singapore Airlines holding a 25.1% stake in Air India, with Vistara being a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Group.

In a detailed 31-page order, the Chandigarh bench of the NCLT approved the “composite scheme of arrangement” involving Talace, Air India, and Vistara, all entities under the Tata Group umbrella. The merger is expected to be finalized by the end of the year, with all necessary approvals from shareholders and creditors already in place.

The NCLT order emphasized that the sanctioned scheme will be binding on the petitioner companies and their respective shareholders. It also outlined the dissolution of the Transferor Companies (Vistara) upon completion of the merger process, subject to receiving required approvals such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) approval and security clearances within a nine-month timeframe.

The merger proposal had previously received conditional approval from Singapore’s competition regulator CCCS in March and was later cleared by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in September 2023, with certain conditions attached.

The takeover of Air India by Tata Group in January 2022 marked a significant turning point for the struggling airline, and the upcoming merger with Vistara underlines the continued evolution and consolidation within the aviation industry.