Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas  acted as the legal counsel to Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) in the acquisition of 75% stake in Krishnapatanam Port Company Limited (Krishnapatanam Port) from the promoter family members and other shareholders for an enterprise value of INR 13,572 crores (USD1.89 billion). Krishnapatnam Port is located in southern Andhra Pradesh, and is the second-largest private sector port in India with multi-cargo facility.

This would be the largest acquisition in the port sector in India. This acquisition will add about 64 million metric tonnes (MMT) of annual cargo-handling capacity to APSEZ, increasing its market share by 5 percentage points to 27%. With the acquisition of Krishnapatnam Port, APSEZ has strengthened its position on the east coast of India as it is operating Ennore and Kattupalli (Tamil Nadu), Vizag (Andhra Pradesh), and Dhamra (Odisha) ports and terminals, and will have 12 ports and terminals across the country.

The General Corporate, Projects & Financing, Disputes Resolution, Competition Law, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas advised APSEZ on the Transaction. This transaction was signed on January 3, 2020, with the transaction team being led by Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner; L Viswanathan, Partner; Ravi Kumar, Partner; Paridhi Adani, Partner; and Subhalakshmi Naskar, Partner; with support from Saurabh Sharma, Senior Associate; Prashant Bakhru, Senior Associate; Devanshi Dalal, Associate; Rual Chudukattil, Associate; Bhakti Madan, Associate; and Naimi Kamdar, Associate.

Subhalakshmi Naskar, Partner; with support from Anand Deshpande, Associate; Kabir Manchanda, Associate; Isha Choudhary, Associate; and Aditi Gupta, Associate; provided assistance on Projects and Financing related aspects of the Transaction.

Ankoosh Mehta, Partner; with support from Maitrayi Jain, Associate; provided assistance on Disputes related aspects of the Transaction.

Avaantika Kakkar, Partner; and Anshuman Sakle, Partner; with support from Kaustav Kundu, Principal Associate; Ruchi Verma, Associate; Sree Ramya Hari, Associate; and Siddhant K, Associate, provided assistance on competition law related aspects of the Transaction.

Special inputs on certain aspects of the Transaction were provided by Bharat Vasani, Partner; and Gauri Rasgotra, Partner (Deputy Head – Delhi) with support from Sumit Attri, Director – Disputes; Vikash Kumar Jha, Principal Associate; Nikitha Shenoy, Associate; and Siddhant Sharma, Associate.

The Due Diligence Team was led by Ravi Kumar, Partner; Ankoosh Mehta, Partner; Subhalakshmi Naskar, Partner; and Paridhi Adani, Partner; with support from Saurabh Sharma, Senior Associate; Prashant Bakhru, Senior Associate; Anand Deshpande, Associate; Kabir Manchanda, Associate; Devanshi Dalal, Associate; Aditi Gupta, Associate; Isha Choudhary, Associate; Rual Chudukattil, Associate; Bhakti Madan, Associate; Simran Aggarwal, Associate; and Rohan Jhaveri, Associate.

Manik Makwana, Senior Executive – Corporate Secretarial Services; Rasika Bharadkar, Executive – Corporate Secretarial Services; Charmi Sanghvi, Executive – Corporate Secretarial Services; and Mihir Sangani, Executive – Corporate Secretarial Services; assisted with the ROC Searches.

Other parties and advisors involved in the transaction included SBI Capital Markets who acted as the advisors to the Sellers.

The Transaction was signed on January 3, 2020 and is expected to close by April 30, 2020, subject to receipt of requisite regulatory approvals.