Adani Road Transport Limited (ARTL) is preparing to acquire stakes in Macquarie Asia Infrastructure Fund (MAIF)’s Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh road toll portfolio at a total investment of Rs3,110 crore. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL) is expected to get a 56.8% stake in Gujarat Road and Infrastructure Company Ltd (GRICL) and a 100% stake in Andhra Pradesh’s Swarna Tollway Private Ltd (STPL).
This transaction, though subject to regulatory and lenders’ approvals, is likely to close by September this year.
GRICL has two stretches, which include Ahmedabad to Mehsana on SH-41 spanning 51.6 km with the majority of passenger traffic connecting important northern Gujarat corridors. The second one is Vadodara to Halol on SH-87 spanning 31.7 km which is on Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor with proximity to several industries.
STPL has two stretches of toll roads in Andhra Pradesh. One, the Tada to Nellore on NH-16 connecting important ports such as Chennai, and Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, spanning 110 kilometres. Second, the Nandigama to Ibrahimpatnam to Vijayawada on NH-65 spanning 48 km, which connects key southern metro cities and provides feeder traffic to NH16.
With this deal, ARTL’s business in highways will include eight Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) projects, five Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects, and one Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) road project in 10 states in India, with more than Rs41,000 crore of projects under management.
Krishna Prakash Maheshwari, CEO of ARTL, said, “ARTL is committed to the Adani Group’s nation-building initiative with a portfolio of more than 5,000 lane kilometres of highway projects under construction and operation. This is one of the largest portfolios of toll road assets with high quality, a strong team, a long and robust track record of growth and strong cash flow generation with low leverage. We would like to thank Macquarie Asset Management for the support they have provided to the growth of the portfolio and for having developed a robust operating team who we welcome to the Adani family.”
