Adani Group likely to bid for AAI's stake in Mumbai Airport: Report

Mumbai Airport Terminal 2

The Adani Group is likely to place a bid to acquire the residual stake held by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the Mumbai International Airport, Mint newspaper reported, citing Karan Adani, the managing director of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone.

Karan Adani told Mint that Adani Group will bid for AAI's stake only if it gives the company a controlling stake and hence the company does not see Delhi, Bengaluru and, Hyderabad airports as a proper suitor.

Adani group is a majority stakeholder in Mumbai International Airport Ltd -  the company that runs Mumbai airport.

Mint highlighted that in recent times, Adani group has bid aggressively for airports, and their decision to stay away from AAI’s stake in other private airports would mean lower revenues for the government.

Apart from the Mumbai airport, the Adani group operates airports in Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram.

Mint said that according to the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) - announced in August 2021 - the government plans to privatise a total of 25 AAI airports and sell AAI’s stake in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru airport companies.

The Adani group will bid for these 25 airports as and when they are up for grabs. The group will also invest about Rs. 60,000 crore to expand the seven existing airports in its portfolio over the next 5-10 years. These investments will be in addition to the Rs. 18,000 crore that the group plans to invest in Navi Mumbai airport, the Mint report said.