ABG Ports, Singapore's PSA win Rs 6700cr JNPT project

A consortium of ABG Ports and PSA (formerly Port of Singapore Authority) has bagged a Rs 6,700 crore project for building a fourth terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).

The project was formally awarded to the PSA-led consortium yesterday by JNPT, one of the country's 13 major state-run ports.

"... A subsidiary of the company, ABG Ports, in consortium with PSA Mumbai Investments (PSA), has been issued a letter of award dated September 26, 2011, by JNPT for development of the fourth container terminal," ABG Infralogistics said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange
today.

The container terminal will be built on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis, it said.

Shipping Joint Secretary Rakesh Shrivastava yesterday said the Rs 6,700 crore project will represent the single largest foreign direct investment in the India's ports sector.

As per the agreement, the PSA-led consortium, which emerged as the preferred bidder for the contract in July, will share half its revenues with the government, which is a record earnings sharing arrangement with a private player at any Indian port, sources had said.

The award of contract was delayed as some of the port's trustees had raised doubts over the performance of ABG at the Kandla port in Gujarat, where it is jointly operating a terminal with PSA.

A committee headed by Deputy Chairman N N Kumar was set up by JNPT to look into ABG's performance, as container traffic at Kandla has fallen sharply during the past six years. It submitted its report today.

Apart from the PSA consortium, DP World, Adani Group and APM Terminals had also bid for the JNPT project in October, 2010.

Shares of ABG Infralogistics were trading at Rs 200.30 a scrip at 1500 hours on the Bombay Stock Exchange today, up 1.29% from their previous close.