Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) on Wednesday acquired a 31.5% stake in Andhra Pradesh’s Gangavaram Port Ltd (GPL) from Warburg Pincus. The company acquired the stake for Rs 1,954 crore. With this acquisition, the company said its share in the all-India market rises to 30%. APSEZ is India’s largest private ports and logistics company and a key subsidiary of the Adani Group.
Gangavaram Port Limited (GPL) is located in the northern part of Andhra Pradesh next to the Vizag Port. It is the second-largest non-major port in Andhra Pradesh with a 64 Million Metric Tons (MMT) capacity established under concession from the Andhra Pradesh government that extends till 2059.
The Gangavaram Port is an all-weather, deep water, multi-purpose port that handles fully laden super cape size vessels of up to 200,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT). GPL handles a mix of dry and bulk commodities including coal, iron ore, fertilizer, limestone, bauxite, sugar, alumina, and steel.
In a statement, APSEZ CEO Karan Adani said, “The location of GPL in the north of AP is a strategic complement to our recent acquisition of the Port of Krishnapatnam that serves the south of AP. We believe that GPL holds great potential to complement its bulk cargo terminals with new cargo categories that we intend to develop. The port provides us great access to an adjacent hinterland that was largely untapped by APSEZ thereby placing us in a position to serve a broader set of port customers as well as expand our overall hinterland logistics footprint for a much larger base of customers.”
“We are grateful to the leaders of the AP government for their support and are committed to doing our part to support their vision of accelerating the industrialisation of AP. The Raju family must be complimented for having built an absolute world class asset that we are proud to invest in,” he added.
Businessman DVS Raju and his family owns 58.1% of the port while 10.4% is owned by the government of Andhra Pradesh. The remaining 31.5% is what has now been acquired by APSEZ. The statement from the company said that APSEZ is also in discussion with DVS Raju and his family for their 8.1% stake, which is equivalent to around 30 crore shares in GPL.
“We are very proud of the remarkable success of Gangavaram port in becoming one of India’s leading and most efficient deep-water ports with ultra-modern infrastructure. Warburg Pincus has been a supportive partner in this journey, and we look forward to the Adani Group’s contributions in the next phase of the port’s growth,” said DVS Raju, Chairman of Gangavaram Port Limited.