Adani Ports wins tender for privatisation of Israel’s Haifa port

The Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) stock opened the gap-up on Friday at ₹739.75 from the previous session close of ₹725.20. However, the stock soon plunged to ₹727.5 and is currently trading at ₹730.40 or 0.82% up. The stock reacted to the news that Adani group company Adani Ports has won a tender for the privatisation of the Haifa port in Israel along with Gadot Logistics, a chemicals and logistics company, for about 32 years till 2054.

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani says the Haifa port in Israel holds strategic and historical significance for both countries. "Delighted to win the tender for privatisation of the Port of Haifa in Israel with our partner Gadot. Immense strategic and historical significance for both nations! Proud to be in Haifa, where Indians led, in 1918, one of the greatest cavalry charges in military history!" he tweets.

The winning bid placed by Adani Ports and Gadot was 4.1 shekels or $1.18 billion, a global news agency reported, saying Adani will hold about 70% stake in the port, while the rest will go to Gadot. Both the companies are yet to come out with a detailed statement on the deal. The entire tender process took about two years. The port privatisation will allow Israel to streamline the process and reduce import prices at the port.

APSEZ, which is India’s largest private port operator and an end-to-end logistics provider, operates 13 crucial ports and terminals representing 24% of the country’s port capacity.

The ports operated by the company are Mundra Port, Gujarat, Tuna Terminal, Gujarat, Dahej Port, Gujarat, Hazira Port, Gujarat, Mormugao, Goa, Vizhinjam Port, Kerala, Kattupalli Port, Tamil Nadu, Ennore Terminal, Tamil Nadu, Vizag Terminal, Andhra Pradesh, Dhamra Port, Odisha, Dighi Port, Mumbai, and Krishnapatnam Port, Andhra Pradesh.

APSEZ says it has clocked a cargo throughput of 100 million metric tonnes (MMT) in the first 99 days of FY23. APSEZ hit the record volume on July 8, 2022. When APSEZ’s operations spanned five ports, it took 14 years for the company to achieve 100 MMT of annual cargo throughput, says Karan Adani, CEO, APSEZ. In the next five years and with operations across nine ports, APSEZ doubled cargo throughput to 200 MMT. The next 300 MMT target was achieved in three years. "We are now poised to grow our cargo volumes by 60% to 500 MMT by 2025 and emerge as the world’s largest port operator by 2030,” he adds.

He says the factors that helped the company achieve the feat are improved efficiencies in fleet and fuel management, asset monitoring, mobility, operational intelligence and performance monitoring.

The next target set by APSEZ is 500 MMT cargo throughput by 2025, it adds. "The present growth in cargo is supported by a 12% Y-o-Y jump in June 2022 at 31.88 MMT. Coal volumes have continued to show a strong recovery of 25% over the previous year," says the company.

With a monthly growth volume of 21%, Mundra tops the chart on the overall performance, followed by Hazira, Kattupalli & Ennore combined, and Dahej. The company’s Jan-March quarter profit was 21.78% down at ₹1,033 crore on a year-on-year basis, while its total income rose to ₹4,417.87 crore in Q4 FY22 from ₹4,072.42 crore in the year-ago period.