Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has announced the acquisition of the residual 25% stake in Krishnapatnam Port for Rs 2,800 cr from Vishwa Samudra Holdings. This has resulted in APSEZ increasing its stake from 75% to 100% in Krishnapatnam Port.
Together with the 75% ownership acquired in October 2020, the acquisition implies an enterprise value of Rs 13,675 cr— an EV/FY21 Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) multiple of 10.3x, further enhancing shareholder value.
Karan Adani, Chief Executive Officer and Whole Time Director of APSEZ said, “The consolidation of our ownership in Krishnapatnam Port reinforces APSEZ’s stride towards 500 MMT by 2025 and achieving our broader strategy of cargo parity between west and east coasts of India. Krishnapatnam Port is on track to handle double the traffic by 2025 and will deliver high growth through a multi-product and cargo enhancement strategy while enhancing return on capital employed. We are confident that we will be able to double throughput and triple EBITDA at Krishnapatnam Port by 2025. We are committed to making Krishnapatnam Port the gateway port for South Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. With its large industrial land backed with the port we will transform Krishnapatnam into a manufacturing and industrial hub.”
Krishnapatnam Port is located on the east coast of India in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh (~180 km from Chennai Ports) close to the border between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. It is all-weather, deep-water sea port having multi-cargo facility with current capacity of 64 MMTPA. With a waterfront of 20 km and 6,800 acres of land, Krishnapatnam Port has a master plan capacity of 300 MMTPA and a 50-year concession.
The port is expected to have volumes of 38 MMT, revenues of Rs 1,840 cr and EBITDA of Rs 1,325 Cr in FY21. Since its Adani acquisition, Krishnapatnam Port has focussed on business process re-engineering which has resulted in EBITDA margins improving from 57% in FY20 to 72% in FY21.
