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

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 by the Government of Puducherry.

The Karaikal Port was commissioned in 2009, and was developed in the Karaikal District of the Union Territory of Puducherry, around 300 KMS south of Chennai. It is the only major port between Chennai & 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, mechanized 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 & 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.

Commenting on the occasion, 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.

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.”

In FY 2023, Karaikal Port handled ~10 MMT of cargo and acquisition consideration of INR 1,485 crores implies an EV/EBITDA multiple of ~8x on FY23 EBITDA number.