After weeks of speculation, billionaire Gautam Adani on Monday announced that Adani Airports Holding Ltd will acquire GVK Group’s shareholding and control of Mumbai Airport. GVK Airport Development Ltd is the holding company through which GVK Group holds 50.50% equity stake in Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), which in turn holds 74% equity stake in Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd. According to the agreement, Adani Airports will acquire the debt of GVK ADL from its airport lenders. Share price of Adani Enterprises was trading flat while GVK Power and Infrastructure was up 5%.
“The GVK Group and AAHL have agreed that AAHL will offer a stand-still to GVK, in addition, to release of the guarantee given by GVK Power and Infrastructure Limited with respect to the debt acquired by it,” Adani Enterprises said in a statement. GVK and Adani Enterprises did not give out the financial details of the deal. Adani Enterprises said that Adani Airports intends to infuse funds into MIAL and also achieves financial closure of Navi Mumbai International Airport to be able to commence construction. This conversion would see Adani Group getting the 50.5% stake of GVK Group, and along with that it will also acquire 23.5% of minority partners, Airports Company South Africa, and Bidvest Group.
