Air India official, who declined to be named, told Mint. “The proceeds from the sale of the building will be used to pay off a part of the airline’s debt,” said the official. A potential deal for the 23-storey building at Rs 2,000 crore will be a boost to financially-troubled Air India as it will surpass realisations expected previously. Air India has a net debt of Rs 55,000 crore, including Rs 21,000-22,000 crore of aircraft debt. The carrier has been incurring losses for more than a decade and also failed to garner investor interest in a recent privatisation attempt. The building served as the corporate headquarters for Air India until 2013 when the head office was shifted to New Delhi. The Air India building, which is spread over 220,000 sq. ft, has several vacant floors though several floors, overlooking the Arabian Sea have been rented out to the directorate general of shipping, State Bank of India, and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Nariman Point, once among the world’s costliest office locations, has lost its sheen as more companies shift to Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex office hub.
“The buildings at Nariman Point are old and are not
conducive to setting up modern offices with large floor plates and automation
facilities,” real estate advisory firm Liases Foras’ managing director Pankaj
Kapoor told Mint in July.
The Air India building, considering its complexity and
limited redevelopment potential, could fetch the airline about Rs 650-700
crore, Kapoor had said.
In contrast, Express Towers, located next to Air India
building, and spread over 400,000 sq. ft, was sold for Rs 870 crore in 2014.
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