India’s Adani Ports Completes Acquisition of Karaikkal Port

P R Sanjai, Bloomberg News

Signage atop the Adani Group headquarters in Ahmedabad, India, on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. A meeting was held in London Wednesday, as a part of a worldwide roadshow aimed at reassuring international investors that the ports-to-power empire’s finances are under control, after as much as $153 billion in combined market value was erased from company stocks following a January short seller’s report. Photographer: Prakash Singh/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. completed the acquisition of Karaikal Port Private Ltd after a bankruptcy tribunal approved its resolution plan, according to the port unit of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate.

The National Company Law Tribunal approved the plan for the Adani Group subsidiary to pay 14.85 billion rupees ($181 million) to financial creditors, the company said in a statement Saturday.

“Adani Ports will spend further 8.50 billion rupees over time to upgrade infrastructure in order to reduce the logistics cost for the customers,” Karan Adani, Adani Ports chief executive officer, said. “We are envisaging to double the capacity of the port in the next five years and also add container terminal to make it a multipurpose port.”

Adani said the acquisition is another milestone in consolidating the port operator’s position as India’s largest transport utility, with the company now operating 14 ports in India.

In the financial year 2022-23, Karaikal Port handled 10 million tons of cargo. It is an all-weather deep-water port on India’s eastern coast commissioned in 2009, around 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of India’s Chennai state, according to the statement.

The completion of the Karaikal Port acquisition comes as Adani Group triess to restore investor confidence following a scathing short seller report in January. U.S.-based Hindenburg Research’s allegations of extensive, years-long corporate fraud at the Adani Group have wiped out more than $100 billion in market value for the company since January.