Adani Ports acquires Kattupalli Port

The country’s largest port developer Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. (APSEZ) has executed a share purchase agreement with Larsen and Toubro Ltd. (L&T) to acquire 97% stake in Marine Infrastructure Developers Pvt. Ltd. (MIDPL), the developer and operator of Kattupalli Port near Chennai, for ₹1,950 crore.

It is one of the most modern ports in India, and emerging as a new gateway for EXIM trade in Chennai/Bangalore region, said APSEZ in a statement.

“Adani Ports is committed to make Kattupalli port one of the largest ports in southern India. We are going to start our construction to diversify the cargo of the port and will be adding 40 million tonnes of new capacity in next 3 years,” said Karan Adani, chief executive officer, APSEZ.

Going forward, APSEZ plans to transform Kattupalli into a multi-commodity port to handle cargoes such as containers, automobiles, break bulk, general cargo, liquid cargo and project cargo. Presently, the port has two berths with quay length of 710 meters, six quay cranes, 15 RTG cranes, 5,120 ground slots with the capacity to handle 1.2 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers per annum.

Of the ₹ 1,950 crore, APSEZ will be paying ₹ 1,562 crore towards settlement of dues of MIDPL and ₹ 388 crore is the consideration for the acquisition of shares.

An agreement to this effect was signed on Thursday between L&T, MIDPL, L&T Shipbuilding Ltd., Adani Kattupalli Port Pvt. Ltd., and APSEZ.

Source Business Line