Foreign broking firm Morgan Stanley has given an 'overweight' call on Adani Ports, with a target of Rs 690 per share, after its acquisition of Karaikal Port for Rs 1,485 crore.
In the financial year 2022-23, Karaikal Port, situated 300 km along the coast south of Chennai, handled 10 million tonnes of cargo. "The port's revenue declined between FY20 and FY22, from Rs 414 crore to Rs 247 crore. Implied EBITDA/tonne is Rs 186 versus Adani Ports' Rs 292 for FY22," noted Morgan Stanley.
Profit improvement over the next two years could make it a value-accretive transaction, the firm added.
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“We will spend further Rs 850 crore over time to upgrade infrastructure in order to reduce the logistics cost for the customers,” Adani Ports CEO Karan Adani said. “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.”
In the meantime, Adani Ports has appointed former Israeli Ambassador to India Ron Malka as the Executive Chairman of Haifa Port Company. In July 2022, Adani Ports had won the tender for privatisation of Israel's Haifa Port along with its business local partner chemical and logistics group Gadot.
At 12:15pm, Adani Ports was quoting at Rs 625.40 on the NSE, lower by 1 percent from the previous close. The stock is down 17 percent since the publication of the Hindenburg report on January 24.
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