AviAlliance, AMP Capital eye minority stake in Mumbai airport: Report

The Mumbai International Airport has attracted non-binding bids from German airport operator AviAlliance, Australia’s AMP Capital and US-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for a minority stake, Mint reports.

The GVK group currently holds 50.5 percent stake in the airport, and it wishes to sell some of it to free up cash for new projects like the second airport in the island city. The three companies will send binding offers in the next few weeks, if the discussions are productive, a source told the paper.

Other shareholders in the international airport are South Africa’s Bidvest Group with 13.5 percent stake, Airports Co South Africa (10 percent stake) and Airport Authority of India (26 percent).

The ongoing discussions with three interested parties are revolving around how much stake will be sold as GVK’s intends to secure an enterprise valuation of about Rs 20,000 crore, the report stated.

The Indian conglomerate was earlier in talks with four potential buyers including AviAlliance, Singapore’s Changi Airport, India’s wealth fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

Out of these, only AviAlliance has made an offer yet, while AMP Capital and GIP joined discussions later on, a source told the paper.

Avi Alliance owns and manages airports across the globe and if this deal goes through, it will be the company’s first project in India. AMP Capital has been present in India for more than a decade. In April, GIP acquired the infrastructure asset management business from private equity firm IDFC Alternatives at an undisclosed value to set up its India platform.

Even Bidvest group is looking to sell its entire stake in the airport to whoever buys GVK’s stake. “Bidvest has appointed investment bank Rothschild to help find a buyer for its stake and had begun the sale process, but it may now choose to wait till GVK’s stake sale is finalised and offer its stake to the same buyer,” a sourced told the paper.

Mumbai International Airport operates, maintains and develops Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport under a 30-year concession granted by the government.