Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone will acquire a 95 percent stake in Gopalpur Port in Odisha for an equity value of Rs 1,349 crore in order to strengthen its east coast footprint, India's largest private port operator said on March 26.
Adani Ports will purchase a 56 percent stake in the port from real-estate conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group) and a 39 percent from Orissa Stevedores.
"GPL (Gopalpur Port) will add to the Adani Group's pan-India port network, east coast vs west coast cargo volume parity and strengthen APSEZ's integrated logistics approach," said Karan Adani, managing director at Adani Ports.
The port handles a mix of dry bulk cargo, including iron ore, coal, limestone, ilmenite, and alumina, reports said.
“The planned divestments of Gopalpur Port and Dharamtar Port at a significant enterprise value demonstrate our group’s ability to turn around assets and create stakeholder value in a relatively short period of time, capitalising our core strengths in project development and construction," a spokesperson for the SP Group said.
The Shapoorji Pallonji Group acquired the port in 2017 and started operations after building infrastructure and establishing stable industry ties, the company said in a statement.
The port can now handle 20 million tonnes of freight a year and runs at high efficiency levels.
Gopalpur Port and Petronet LNG have decided to build a greenfield LNG regasification station, which will give the port steady, long-term cash flows, it said.
The Shapoorji Pallonji Group was advised by Deutsche Bank on this deal.
On March 22, the Adani Ports stock closed at Rs 1,276.70on the National Stock Exchange, up 1.13 percent from the previous close.
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