Adani arm buys Australian port for Rs 9,000 crore

The Adani group’s Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ) on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Abbot Point Port in Australia for A$ 1.8 billion (Rs 9,000 crore).

Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland is selling the coal export terminal as part of an A$ 15 billion asset-sale programme. It will use the money for reconstruction following the devastation caused by floods and Cyclone Yasi.

MPSEZ expects to close the all-cash deal by June.

The port has two mechanised berths. MPSEZ aims to build another two in the next five years.

The port has a capacity of 50 million tonnes. It is using 20 million tonnes at present.

“At present, Abbot Port can handle 50 million tonnes coal. We plan to expand it to 80 million tonnes in five years. Besides other cargo, the port will handle coal from Adani’s own mines,” said B Ravi, chief financial officer (CFO), MPSEZ. In August last year, Adani had bought Linc Energy’s coal mines in Queensland for about $2.7 billion (Rs 12,500 crore).

Adani plans to fund the deal through debt and sale of some equity in MPSEZ.

The company expects revenues from port operations to nearly triple to A$ 305 million (Rs 1,470 crore) by 2016 from A$ 110 million (Rs 530 crore) in 2011.

“We aspire to expand globally and are in search of right business opportunities. Abbot Point is our contribution to India’s increasing global ambition,” said Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani.

In the past 10 years, the asset base of MPSEZ has risen from $100 million to $3 billion. The group has a cargo handling capacity of above 200 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) as against 2.5 MTPA in 2001.

On why Australia has become a favourite place for buying energy assets, CFO Ravi said, “The Australian government, which was earlier conservative, opened up to privatisation of energy assets a couple of years ago.” He said domestic power companies, which had big expansion plans, were looking to buy coal mines abroad to make up for the shortfall in domestic supply.

Imports of coal to produce power rose 33 per cent to 65.7 million tonnes in the year ended March 31.