Adani Ports completes acquisition of Karaikkal Port

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) announced on Saturday that it has completed the acquisition of Karaikal Port.

APSEZ is the port unit of billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate.

Karaikal Port is an all-weather deep-water port on India’s eastern coast.

This development follows the approval of the group's resolution plan by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Under the plan, the Adani arm will pay Rs 1,485 crore ($181 million) to financial creditors.

“Adani Ports will spend further Rs 850 crore over time to upgrade infrastructure in order to reduce the logistics cost for the customers,” Bloomberg reported quoting Karan Adani, the CEO of Adani Ports.

“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,” the CEO was quoted as saying.

Adani termed the acquisition of Karaikal port as a significant milestone in consolidating APSEZ's status as India’s top transport utility.

As of now, the Adani subsidiary operates 14 ports in the country.

In the financial year 2022-23, Karaikal Port handled 10 million tons of cargo. The port, commissioned in 2009, is located around 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Chennai.

The completion of the Karaikal Port acquisition comes as Adani Group tries 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.