In a regulatory filing, the company said, “APSEZ has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 80% stake in Astro, in an all-cash deal for $185 million, implying an enterprise value of $235 million and EV/ FY25E EBITDA at 4.4x.”
The transaction is expected to be value accretive from the first year itself, it added.
Astro is a leading global OSV operator in the Middle East, India, Far East Asia and Africa. It owns a fleet of 26 OSVs comprising of anchor handling tugs (AHTs), flat top barges, multipurpose support vessels (MPSVs) and workboats and provides vessel management and complementary services.
During the year ending 30 April 2024, Astro posted $95 million revenue and $41 million EBITDA. As of 30 April 2024, Astro was net cash positive.
The deal is strategically significant as Astro Offshore has an impressive roster of Tier-1 customers in the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC), oil and gas, and renewables industry.
Astro’s strong roster of Tier-1 customers includes NMDC, McDermott, COOEC, Larsen & Toubro and Saipem.
Ashwani Gupta, whole-time director & CEO of APSEZ, said, “Astro’s acquisition is part of our roadmap to becoming one of the world’s largest marine operators. Astro will add 26 OSVs to our current fleet of 142 tugs and dredgers, taking the total count to 168.
The acquisition will also give us access to an impressive roster of Tier-1 customers while further consolidating our footprint across the Arabian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent and Far East Asia. We look forward to working closely with Astro’s leadership team and scaling up the current platform.”
There are no regulatory approvals required and the transaction is expected to close within a month, subject to fulfilment of operational conditions precedent, APSEZ added.
Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone is in the business of development, operations and maintenance of port infrastructure (port services and related infrastructure development) and has linked multi product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and related infrastructure contiguous to port at Mundra.
The company’s consolidated net profit surged 47.2% to Rs 3,112.83 crore on 11.34% in revenue from operations to Rs 6,956.32 crore in Q1 FY25 over Q1 FY24.
Shares of Adani Ports and Special Economic rose 0.46% to end at Rs 1,482.65 on the BSE.