ADANI GOES ON A BUYING SPREE IN TELUGU STATES

The Adani group is on an acquisition spree in the Telugu states and the latest target is a stake in the city-based electric bus manufacturer Olectra.

The Adani group, which made a foray into the fastgrowing segment of electric vehicles a few years ago, has set its eyes on Olectra Greentech, in which a majority stake is held by the Megha group.

Sources told Deccan Chronicle that the Adani group will take 10 per cent equity in Olectra but the deal value is yet to be known.

Olectra was launched by Goldstone Infratech with technical collaboration from the BYD group of China. The name of the company was changed to Olectra Greentech and its share price closed at

`177.90 on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Adani group announced the purchase of 31.5 per cent stake in Gangavaram port. Though the Adani group made repeated attempts to get into the most valuable project, it did not materialise as the promoters, D.V.S. Raju and family, were said to have fixed a higher value,

`10,000 crore.

The Adanis realised its dream, however, by buying 31.5 per cent stake from global venture capitalist Warb-urg Pincus for

`1,954 crore, bringing down the value of the company to about `5,000 crore.

“There is every reason for the original promoters to keep the company at a higher value,” sources in the port sector pointed out. Gangavaram with its locational advantage and deeper levels is considered to be the least expensive on maintenance.

On the financial front, the port is debt-free and earned a net profit of

`516 crore in 2019-20 fiscal against a turnover of

`1,082 crore. The company also has cash reserves of nearly `500 crore.

Earlier, the Adani group had bought a 75 per cent stake in Krishnapatnam port.