Adani Ports secures Paradip dry bulk berth project; stock climbs

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) on Wednesday announced that it has emerged as the highest bidder and received the Letter of Award (LoA) for the development and operation of two dry bulk berths at Paradip Port in Odisha. Following the announcement, the stock climbed 4.49 per cent to hit a day's high of Rs 1,785.50 in Wednesday's trade.

"The addition of 18 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of new capacity will take APSEZ's total domestic portfolio to 671 MMT, advancing its target of reaching 1 billion tonnes of cargo throughput by 2030," the Gautam Adani-led company said in an exchange filing.

Under the 30-year concession, which will be executed under the Public-Private Partnership model, APSEZ stated that it will develop the CQ-I and CQ-II berths with mechanised cargo handling systems, deep-draft berths and large-scale storage infrastructure.

"The Paradip concession will strengthen APSEZ's presence on the East Coast and expand our access to one of India's most important industrial and mineral-rich hinterlands. With Paradip, APSEZ's network grows to 16 ports and terminals across India's 11,000-km coastline, strengthening our ability to deliver integrated port, logistics and marine solutions through the country's most comprehensive transport infrastructure platform," said Ashwani Gupta, Whole-time Director and CEO at APSEZ.

Adani Group stocks in focus

Separately, Adani Group stocks were in focus after Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd, entered into binding agreements to raise Rs 9,825 crore, or around $1 billion, in primary equity capital from a consortium of domestic and global investors.

The consortium comprises Alpha Wave Global, Premji Invest, Temasek and funds managed by BlackRock.

"The transaction values AAHL at a pre-money equity valuation of ~$18 billion and represents one of the largest primary equity investments from financial institutions in India's airport infrastructure sector," the company said.