Adani Ports, Vedanta group co-bidders for Puducherry's Karaikal port

The Karaikal Port defaulted on Rs 2,960 crore loans and was taken up for insolvency proceedings in April this year by the Chennai bench of NCLT

The Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) along with a Vedanta group entity co-submitted financial bids for Karaikal Port on Friday, September 30, the Economic Times reported.

A total of five players, including the co-bidders, submitted expressions of interest for the 600-acre port located in the union territory of Puducherry in August. JSW Infra, Jindal Power and a consortium of RKG Fund and Sagacious Capital are the other bidders.

The Karaikal Port defaulted on Rs 2,960 crore loans and was taken up for insolvency proceedings in April this year by the Chennai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). 

The two final bids will be opened at a committee of creditors meeting today.

Commissioned in 2009, the Karaikal Port is an all-weather deep water port developed in a build, operate and transfer format in a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement between the government and MARG. 

The port has handled diverse cargo such as coal, sugar, cement, fertilisers, project cargo, agro commodities, liquid cargo and containers.

The port was sanctioned a loan of Rs 1,362 crore by a group of eleven public sector banks or financial institutions. However, interests and penalties due to late or irregular payments piled up over time and nine out of the eleven lenders sold their loans to Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company in 2015. The only two that didn't sell their loans were the State Bank of Hyderabad and Corporation Bank.