Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited is hopeful of easily raising funds required to acquire the state-owned Container Corporation of India Limited (Concor).
Concor owns inland ports across the country and provides rail transport for containers. On the other hand, Adani Ports is India’s largest private port operator.
“Concor is a very strategic acquisition. Without stretching the balance sheet, we should easily be able to do that acquisition,” Chief Executive Officer Karan Adani said.
The union government is looking to dilute its stake in publicly traded state-run firm Concor from 55 per cent to a minority stake, reports Livemint.
It must be noted that Mundra Port, the flagship port of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), has overtaken state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in container handling.
In March 2021, as a part of its ‘string of ports’ acquisition strategy, APSEZ Ltd acquired a 31.5 per cent stake in Gangavaram Port Limited (GPL), located in the northern part of Andhra Pradesh next to Vizag Port.
Also recently, APSEZ increased its stake in Krishnapatnam Port, located close to Andhra and Tamil Nadu, to 100 per cent, making it the country’s second-largest private-sector port after Mundra.
APSEZ’s port holdings make up 24 per cent of India’s port capacity, making it India’s largest port developer and operator, operating 12 ports and terminals across India — Mundra, Dahej, Tuna and Hazira in Gujarat, Dhamra in Odisha, Mormugao in Goa, Visakhapatnam and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Dighi in Maharashtra and Kattupalli and Ennore in Chennai.