AHMEDABAD: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) is awaiting approval from a bankruptcy court in Chennai to buy indebted port company Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd for Rs1,500 crores under India’s bankruptcy law, 

Chief Executive Officer of APSEZ, Karan Adani, has said.

“Through a bankruptcy court, we are taking over Karaikal Port at a capex of Rs1,500 crore. We are the highest bidder for the port and the Committee of Creditors has approved our bid,” Karan Adani, also a Whole Time Director of APSEZ, said in a call with analysts on 7 February after announcing the company’s third quarter financial results.

This is the first time APSEZ has revealed the acquisition price after its bid was cleared by the lenders panel of Omkara Assets Reconstruction Pvt Ltd (Omkara ARC) in December 2022.

The Chennai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal is expected to clear the resolution plan submitted by APSEZ in the next couple of months.

The deal will help APSEZ, the port’s unit of Ahmedabad-based conglomerate and India’s biggest private port operator, to tighten its grip on India’s port sector where it controls 12 ports/terminals spread across the western and eastern seaboard. These ports/terminals have a capacity to handle a combined 580 million tonnes (mt) of cargo.

APSEZ handled 312 mt of cargo in FY22 at a capacity utilisation of 58 percent.

By 2026, the port operator aims to handle 500 mt of cargo and seeks to emerge as the world’s largest port operator and India’s largest transport utility by 2030.

Karaikal Port would be APSEZ’s second port acquisition under India’s bankruptcy law after Dighi port in Maharashtra.

Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd runs the all-weather Karaikal port developed on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) format under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode on a 30-year concession awarded by the Puducherry government. The port started operations in June 2009.