A newly acquired Adani port on the east coast was rocked by protests on Thursday.
Over 200 Congressmen sought to barge into the Karaikal port in Pondicherry, demanding the industrial group should not be allowed to handle coal through the port. Police, however, prevented the protesters from entering the port.
Last week, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) completed the acquisition of Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd (KPPL) pursuant to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approval.
APSEZ was declared a successful resolution applicant under the corporate insolvency resolution process of KPPL.
The port is located 300km south of Chennai. Analysts said its was strategically located private port between the Chennai and Tuticorin ports.
APSEZ, the largest private player in ports, accounts for nearly one-fourth of the country’s total annual cargo movement.
The Adanis have emerged as the successful resolution applicant in proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) 2016, over the only other applicant, Vedanta.
APSEZ has also acquired the Kattupalli port, an auxiliary but infrastructurally critical port North of Chennai.
Under the resolution plan, APSEZ has committed to make a payment of approximately Rs 1,583.07 crore towards the discharge of all the claims of the creditors. It will make an upfront payment of Rs 1,485 crore.
Karaikal Port is an all-weather deep-water port in Puducherry with five operational berths, three railway sidings, total land area of over 600 hectares and a built-in cargo handling capacity of 21.5 million tonnes (mt).
“Acquisition consideration of Rs 1,485 crore implies an EV/EBITDA multiple of 8x on the FY23 estimated numbers,” APSEZ said in a statement.
According to the statement, the port is in proximity to the containerized cargo-originating industrial centres of Tamil Nadu, and the upcoming 9mt CPCL refinery.
APSEZ CEO and whole-time director Karan Adani said, “With the acquisition of Karaikal port APSEZ now operates 14 ports in India. APSEZ will spend further Rs 850 crore over time to upgrade infrastructure in order to reduce the logistics cost for the customers.
