Government receives bids for Pawan Hans' divestment

New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) The Central government on Wednesday said that it has recieved bids for the divestment of chopper services company Pawan Hans Ltd (PHL).

According to Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey, at present the transaction advisor "is in the process of examining each of those bids, once the bids are found to be eligilble" and after that the invitation for participation in RPF will be indicated.

On April 13, the Central government had invited 'Expression of Interest' to divest its 51 per cent stake in chopper services company.

The Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) inviting the EoI for the strategic divestment was issued on April 13, only days after the government had withdrawn an earlier PIM for the proposed divestment.

The government owns 51 per cent equity of the company, while ONGC holds the rest 49 per cent stake.

PHL was set up as a public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to primarily provide helicopter services for the exploration activities of ONGC and to the northeast region.