Adani Ports & SEZ Acquires Karaikal Port For Rs 1,485 Crore

The Karaikal Port was commissioned in 2009, and was developed in the Karaikal district in Puducherry, around 300 km south of Chennai

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has said that it has completed the acquisition of Karaikal Port Private Limited (KPPL) pursuant to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approval. Earlier, APSEZ was declared as the successful resolution applicant under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of KPPL.

According to the release, Karaikal Port is an all-weather deep-water port on India’s eastern coast that was developed on the Build, Operate and Transfer format under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) by the Puducherry government.

Karan Adani, CEO and Whole-time Director, APSEZ said, "The acquisition of Karaikal Port is another milestone in consolidating our position as India’s largest transport utility. With acquisition of Karaikal port APSEZ now operates 14 ports in India."

He said that APSEZ will spend further Rs 850 crores over time to upgrade infrastructure in order to reduce the logistics cost for the customers. “We are envisaging to double the capacity of the port in the next 5 years and also add container terminal to make it a multipurpose port,” Adani added.

The Karaikal Port was commissioned in 2009, and was developed in the Karaikal district in Puducherry, around 300 km south of Chennai. It is the only major port between Chennai and Tuticorin, and its strategic location allows the port easy access to industrial-rich hinterland of central Tamil Nadu.

The port gets a 14-meter water draft and has land area of over 600 acres. Its existing infrastructure includes 5 operational berths, 3 railway sidings, mechanised bulk cargo handling system including mechanized wagon-loading and truck-loading systems, 2 mobile harbour cranes and a large cargo storage space that includes open yards, 10 covered warehouses and 4 liquid storage tanks. 

With a built-in cargo handling capacity of 21.5 MMT, the port primarily handles, cement, fertilizer, limestone, steel, and liquids. The upcoming CPCL’s 9 MMTPA new refinery at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu presents an opportunity for Karaikal Port to handle an additional large volume of liquid cargo.

In FY23, Karaikal Port handled 10 MMT of cargo and acquisition consideration of Rs 1,485 crores implies an EV/EBITDA multiple of 8X on FY23 EBITDA number.