Adani Airports wants to fly higher; seeks higher stake in Mumbai airport

Adani Airports Holdings has a 74% stake in the airport, with the remaining 26 per cent owned by the Airports Authority of India

Gautam Adani-led Adani Airports Holdings (AAHL) is looking to raise its ownership in the Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), Financial Express (FE) has reported. AAHL is the country's second-largest airport operator and currently owns a 74 per cent stake in MIAL. The remaining 26 per cent is owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Adani Group acquired a majority stake in the Mumbai airport from the GVK Group in a deal in August 2020. MIAL controls the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) and is the country's second-largest airport in terms of passengers it handles, only second to Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Citing a statement from the annual report of Adani Enterprises, the FE report said that the group intends to acquire all airports the government is looking to privatise, including the minority stake the AAI owns in the Mumbai airport.

However, Adani Group will be able to acquire the minority stake of AAI in MIAL only if the government decides to execute its earlier plan to sell AAI's stake in all the public-private partnership airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. The government had announced its intention to sell its stake in these airports as part of its national monetisation pipeline.

A source aware of the development told FE that the government planned to sell its residual stake in the four airports mentioned above but decided not to go ahead with it later on.

Apart from MIAL, AAI also has a 26 per cent stake in Delhi International Airport. However, the government stake in Hyderabad and Bengaluru is much smaller at 13 per cent each as it holds the stake in partnership with the respective state governments, the FE report said.

Moreover, AAI holds an indirect stake in the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport, which is being constructed and developed by Adani Airport Holdings.

Currently, AAHL serves close to 23 per cent of India's passengers with a plan to expand to more than 300 million passengers against the current number of 74.8 million, FE reported.