Adani buys Australian port operator from Glencore

MUMBAI (Reuters) - A unit of India's Adani Enterprises Ltd will buy the company that operates Australia's Abbot Point Coal Terminal from Glencore Plc for A$19.25 million dollars ($14.52 million), ending a legal wrangle over control of the port.

The statement from Adani and Glencore said Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone would purchase the port operator, Abbot Point BulkCoal Pty Ltd, pending regulatory approvals.

Adani Enterprises, India's biggest private sector coal trader, acquired the Abbot Point Coal Terminal port from the Queensland government in 2011, considering it a key part of its plan to ship coal from Australia to India and for other exports.

 

However, Glencore retained control of the actual operations of the port through its ownership of Abbot Point BulkCoal, sparking a legal dispute between the global miner and Adani that effectively will now end as the Indian company will assume full control of the port.

Adani Australia CEO Jeyakumar Janakaraj called the deal "a key milestone in our well advanced plans for Abbot Point," according to the joint statement by the two companies.

($1 = 1.3256 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Mark Potter)