GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd said on Friday its airports unit will acquire Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) Global Ltd's entire stake in Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).
GVK Airport Holdings Ltd has chosen to exercise its right of first refusal to acquire ACSA Global’s 10% stake for Rs 924 crore ($134 million), GVK Power said in a stock-exchange filing.
GVK Airport’s stake in MIAL will increase to 74% after the completion of the acquisition.
The development comes less than a month after GVK Airport exercised its right of first refusal to acquire South African firm Bidvest Group's stake in MIAL. It had in February acquired a 13.5% stake in MIAL from Bidvest for Rs 1,247.40 crore ($175 million).
GVK Airport’s move thwarted the reported efforts of billionaire Gautam Adani-led diversified conglomerate Adani Group to pick up a 23.5% stake in the operator of the Mumbai airport from Bidvest and Airports Company South Africa.
MIAL, in which the state-run Airports Authority of India owns 26%, operates India's second-largest and the world's busiest single-runway airport. It is also building the Navi Mumbai International Airport.
GVK is looking to raise funds through a stake sale in its airport arm in order to repay debt and meet the expenditure of the Navi Mumbai airport project. GVK is also considering a stake sale in its energy and transportation verticals to raise around Rs 2,000 crore.
The airport unit contributed Rs 3,423 crore, or 88.6% of GVK's total income for 2017-18, as compared with Rs 3,121 crore in the previous year.
The unit reported a profit after tax of Rs 35.41 crore in 2017-18, as per its annual report.
