Adani Ports Acquires Majority Stake In Astro Offshore Eyeing Top Global Spot

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. is set to acquire a majority 80% stake in Astro Offshore, a global leader in offshore support vessels, for $185 million (approximately Rs 1,551 crore). This move will help the Adani Group company expand operations as it eyes becoming the world's largest marine operator.

The transaction—an all-cash deal—is expected to be value-accretive from the first year itself, Adani Ports said in an exchange filing on Friday. The existing promoters of Astro will hold the remaining 20% stake in the company.

The Dubai-based firm Astro is a leading global OSV operator in the Middle East, India, Far East Asia and Africa. It owns a diverse, modern fleet of 26 OSVs and has a roster of Tier-1 customers in the EPC, oil & gas and renewables industries.

Astro's acquisition is part of their roadmap to becoming one of the world's largest marine operators, according to Ashwani Gupta, whole-time director and chief executive officer of Adani Ports.

The acquisition will give access to an impressive roster of Tier-1 customers while further consolidating our footprint across the Arabian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and Far East Asia, Gupta said. "We look forward to working closely with Astro’s leadership team and scaling up the current platform."

There are no regulatory approvals required and the transaction is expected to close within a month, the statement said.

The partnership with billionaire Gautam Adani's port business is a critical inflection point, Mark Humphreys, managing director of Astro Offshore, said. "Together, we can accelerate growth to add further scale and diversity to our fleet mix, expand our geographical footprint and deliver more end-to-end solutions to our customers."

Adani Ports' stock rose as much as 0.74% after the announcement to Rs 1,487 apiece on the NSE. It closed 0.4% higher at Rs 1,481.9 per share, compared to a 0.38% advance in the benchmark Nifty.

The share price has risen 81% in the last 12 months and 48% on a year-to-date basis. The relative strength index was at 47.

Sixteen out of the 18 analysts tracking the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock and two suggest 'hold', according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analyst price targets implies a potential downside of 17%.