Adani Ports completes acquisition of KPCL for ₹12,000-cr

Country's largest private port operator Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has completed the acquisition of Krishnapatnam Port Co Ltd (KPCL) involving an investment of ₹12,000 crore. This will result in APSEZ having a 75% controlling stake in KPCL. On 3 January this year, APSEZ had signed a deal to buy the port for an enterprise value of ₹13,752 crore. KPCL is a multi-cargo facility port situated in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh. The acquisition will accelerate APSEZ's progress towards 500 million tons of cargo handling capacity by 2025 and is another step forward in its strategy of cargo parity between the west and east coasts of India. Karan Adani, CEO and director of APSEZ informed that this transformational acquisition enables the Adani group to roll out world-class customer service to an increased customer base and provide pan India solution to them. Its experience of turning around acquisitions like Dhamra and Kattupalli ports will enable it in harnessing the potential of KPCL. With a vast waterfront and land availability of over 6,700 acres, KPCL is capable of replicating Mundra and would be future-ready to handle 500 million tons of cargo handling capacity per annum.