News Brief
Adani Group To Bid For AAI's Mumbai Airport Stake, Eyes Strategic Control: Here's Why
The Adani Group is already a major player in the growing aviation sector in India. (Representative Image)
The Adani Group is contemplating a bid to acquire the Airports Authority of India's (AAI) stake in the Mumbai International Airport, as reported by The Economic Times.
However, the group is not interested in acquiring AAI's residual share in airports such as Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
The Adani Group intends to bid for airports that the government may put up for auction as well. Their strategy involves bidding for AAI's stake in the Mumbai International Airport only if it grants them a controlling stake.
They are interested in acquiring the Mumbai airport but not other airports. The Adani Group currently holds a majority stake in Mumbai International Airport Ltd, the company that operates the Mumbai airport.
Delhi and Hyderabad airports have the GMR Group as their largest shareholder, while Fairfax is the largest member in the company that manages the Bangalore airport.
Apart from Mumbai, the Adani Group operates airports in Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram. Except for Mumbai, which was acquired from the GVK Group in 2021, the group won the rights to upgrade and operate the other six airports between 2020 and 2021 for a period of 50 years.
According to the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) announced in August 2021, the government plans to privatise a total of 25 AAI airports and sell AAI's stake in the Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru airport companies. The Adani Group intends to bid for these 25 airports when they become available.
