Adani Group back to rapid expansion spree
Adani group has through regulatory filings and press statements announced expansions and investments in its mainstay ports business, diversification into metal refining.
Gautam Adani
NEW DELHI: Adani group opened a $1.2 billion copper plant, bought a port in Odisha, raised stakes in a cement company and stitched an alliance with rival Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, all in a matter of one week in signs that the apples-to-airport conglomerate has shrugged off the Hindenburg effect and is back to rapid expansion spree.
In the last one week, Adani group has through regulatory filings and press statements announced expansions and investments in its mainstay ports business, diversification into metal refining, fund infusion into a two-year-old cement foray and continuing progress in the commissioning of its mega solar project.
It started with the March 26 announcement of Adani Ports acquiring a 95 per cent stake in Gopalpur Port for Rs 3,350 crore, taking the number of seaports under its control to 15 - the highest with any private firm in the country. This was followed by Adani Enterprises Ltd - the group’s flagship firm and business incubator - announcing on March 28 the first phase of the world’s largest single-location copper manufacturing plant at Mundra in Gujarat, marking the conglomerate’s foray into metals refining. The $1.2 billion (about Rs 10,000 crore) plant helped India join China and other nations that are rapidly expanding production of copper, a metal crucial for transition away from fossil fuels. Technologies critical to the energy transition like electric vehicles (EVs), charging infra, solar photovoltaics (PV), wind and batteries, all require copper.
On the same day, group promoter Gautam Adani and his family invested Rs 6,661 crore in Ambuja Cements to raise a stake in the country’s second-largest cement company to 66.7 per cent as it looked well-positioned to benefit from the country’s infrastructure boom. A day later, Adani Green Energy Ltd - the renewable energy arm of the group - announced the start of operation of its 775-megawatt solar power projects in Khavda, Gujarat. Khavda is the site where it is building a vast solar farm to generate 30 gigawatts of electricity from solar rays as part of its plans to reach 45 GW capacity by 2030.
