Adani Ports ‘evaluating’ international buys ; ₹80,000 cr capex plans under-way

AHMEDABAD : Adani Ports and Spe­cial Eco­nomic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) — India’s largest private port oper­ator — is eval­u­at­ing inter­na­tional acquis­i­tions. The com­pany has ini­ti­ated dis­cus­sions to secure part­ner­ships in key trade routes cov­er­ing South East Asia, West Asia and Africa. There are also elab­or­ate plans to ramp up oper­a­tions in India with an ₹80,000 crore capex push over the next three years, offi­cials said.

The capex will be fun­ded primar­ily through internal accru­als and “some debt”.

“We are open to inter­na­tional expan­sion — mostly through part­ner­ships. Some are being explored but there is cau­tion fol­low­ing the ongo­ing geo­pol­it­ical scen­ario. Our focus con­tin­ues to grow domest­ic­ally along the east and west coast,” an APSEZ offi­cial said. Cur­rency fluc­tu­ation is seen as another con­sid­er­a­tion for inter­na­tional M&As.

“We are open to inter­na­tional expan­sion — mostly through part­ner­ships. Some are being explored but there is cau­tion fol­low­ing the ongo­ing geo­pol­it­ical scen­ario. Our focus con­tin­ues to grow domest­ic­ally along the east and west coast,” an APSEZ offi­cial said. Cur­rency fluc­tu­ation is seen as another con­sid­er­a­tion for inter­na­tional M&As..

Con­sultancy firm Macquarie Equity Research, in a report, said APSEZ will “eval­u­ate inter­na­tional port expan­sion oppor­tun­it­ies.”

Cur­rent inter­na­tional oper­a­tions for the com­pany include Haifa in Israel, Dar­EsSa­laam in Tan­zania, and the about to be com­mis­sioned berths at Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Cur­rent inter­na­tional oper­a­tions for the com­pany include Haifa in Israel, Dar­EsSa­laam in Tan­zania, and the about to be com­mis­sioned berths at Colombo, Sri Lanka.

INDIA CAPEX PLANS

The ₹80,000 crore capex over FY25 to FY28 for organic and domestic busi­ness growth is almost double the invest­ment made between FY15 and FY24, when capex was at ₹42,000 crore, as per an investor deck shared by the com­pany. The cur­rent capex under con­sid­e

under con­sid­er­a­tion includes invest­ment in domestic ports, new ones, plus expan­sion of exist­ing ones, of ₹50,000 crore and another ₹25,000­odd crore for the logist­ics busi­ness, while the remain­ing ₹5,000 crore will be for main­ten­ance.

The annual EBITDA of the com­pany is around ₹18,000 crore, and as per group offi­cials, it would suf­fice as the primary fund­ing option (internal accru­als). Around ₹20,000 crore could be looked at as debt option.

The com­pany’s domestic installed capa­city is around 633 mil­lion tonnes (mt) and by 2030, it tar­gets 1000 mt cargo with 800­850 mt of cargo volumes.

“The con­tainer trans­ship­ment at Vizh­in­jam Port in Ker­ala and … the Krish­napat­nam and Gangav­aram ports will be a key part of our India ramp­up,” the offi­cial said.

Brown­field expan­sions of indi­vidual ports include 250 mt at Mun­dra, 204 mt approved incre­mental capa­city at Hazira, around 264 mt at Dhamra and 194 mt capa­city addi­tion at Krish­napat­nam, as per the investor deck.

Brown­field expan­sions of indi­vidual ports include 250 mt at Mun­dra, 204 mt approved incre­mental capa­city at Hazira, around 264 mt at Dhamra and 194 mt capa­city addi­tion at Krish­napat­nam, as per the investor deck.

Installed capa­cit­ies include 264 mt at Mun­dra, 30 mt at Hazira, 75 mt at Krish­napat­nam, 50 mt at Dhamra, 64 mt at Gangav­aram and 25 mt at Kat­tupalli.

The com­pany top brass, in their post res­ults ana­lyst call, said the plan going for­ward would be to pitch the com­pany as an end­to­end logist­ics solu­tions player, with port ops and logist­ics solu­tions, includ­ing trans­port ser­vices going hand­in­hand.

Mac­quaire said it expects cash­flow gen­er­a­tion for APSEZ to remain strong, given a “greater than 50 per cent sticky cargo in­port cargo mix and con­tinu­ing diver­si­fic­a­tion efforts.