Adani acquires aircraft repair business in Rs 400cr deal

MUMBAI: The country's richest man, Gautam Adani, has struck a deal with the Menon family to acquire their aircraft maintenance business for Rs 400 crore.
The business tycoon's latest buy is through Adani Defence Systems & Technologies, which will acquire 100% of Air Works from the Menons and other shareholders including Punj Lloyd Aviation, GTI Capital and the company's employee welfare trust. The deal will boost Adani's fledgling aircraft maintenance business and comes ahead of the government planning to privatise AI Engineering Services. Adani will also take on Air Works's 900-plus maintenance experts. Besides, the acquisition will supplement his airports portfolio.
"Given India's growth trajectory and the government's focus to network the nation through a massive mesh of air connectivity, it is inevitable that the primary growth of India's airline and airport sector lies ahead of it. Add to this the ongoing modernisation programme to make India a large market for defence aircraft, and what emerges is one of the most exciting, comprehensive, at scale and digital MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) services within the boundaries," said Adani Defence & Aerospace CEO Ashish Rajvanshi.
India's MRO market is expected to grow three times from $1.7 billion to $5 billion by 2030. Apart from Air Works and AI Engineering Services, another well-known MRO player is GMR Aero Technic, owned by the South-based business tycoon G M Rao.
Air Works was founded by director Ravi Menon's father and his friend in 1951 and it provides aircraft maintenance services to defence and civil aviation players including IndiGo, Vistara, Etihad and Lufthansa. The Menons own 15% in Air Works, which has a presence in 25 cities.
New York-based asset manager GTI Capital holds nearly 26%, while Punj Lloyd Aviation owns about 24%. Both GTI Capital and Punj Lloyd Aviation first checked into Air Works in fiscal 2007, when the company had a turnover of Rs 20 crore. Since then, its business has grown and is now India's biggest MRO player.