Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has applied for environmental clearance to raise the cargo handling capacity of its recently acquired Gangavaram port in Andhra Pradesh by 20 million tonnes (mt) a year to 60.95 mt from 40.95 mt.
The capacity expansion will be undertaken through modernisation/mechanisation of the existing nine berths within the approved project area of 1,800 acres, the port operator said in the application for green clearance.
Performance
In the first half of FY2022, Gangavaram port handled 16 mt of cargo with revenue of ₹617 crore, EBITDA of ₹419 crore and an EBITDA margin of 68 per cent.
In September, APSEZ said it had closed the acquisition of Gangavaram Port Ltd (GPL) for ₹6,200 crore after purchasing the 10.4 per cent stake owned by the Andhra Pradesh Government for ₹645 crore.
The boards of APSEZ and GPL have also approved the merger of GPL with APSEZ taking into consideration GPL’s valuation of ₹120 per share and fair value of APSEZ at ₹754.8 per share, resulting in a swap ratio of 159 shares in APSEZ for 1,000 shares in GPL for 58.1 per cent stake held by DVS Raju and family in GPL.
The merger is subject to approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which is expected to be concluded by March 31.
Earlier, in April 2021, APSEZ acquired 31.5 per cent from Windy Lakeside Investment Ltd, a unit of private equity firm Warburg Pincus, and signed an agreement to buy the controlling stake of 58.1 per cent held by DVS Raju and family in GPL.
Post the merger of GPL and APSEZ, DVS Raju and family will receive about 4.8 crore shares resulting in around 2.2 per cent stake in APSEZ worth ₹3,604 crore.
The acquisition significantly expands APSEZ’s access to several new markets as a deep draft, modern, multi-focus ports, capable of handling fully laden super cape size vessels of up to 200,000 dead weight tonnes (DWT), Subrata Tripathy, Chief Executive Officer, Ports Vertical, APSEZ said during an analysts call.
GPL handles a dive₹e mix of dry and bulk commodities, including coal, iron ore, fertilizer, limestone, bauxite, sugar, aluminium and steel. .