Karaikal Port, a private port developed by Chennai-based Marg, has secured its third private equity infusion to part-fund its expansion plans. Private equity firm Jacob Ballas India, backed by New York Life International, has invested Rs 200 crore in Karaikal Port to pick up a minority stake.
Jacob Ballas India has made the investment of Rs 200 crore (by way of primary and secondary investments) from its NYLIM Jacob Ballas India Fund III, which has a corpus of $440 million. Karaikal Port has already raised Rs 150 crore from IDFC Project Equity and Rs 200 crore from Ascent Capital.
The funds raised now will be used for its proposed expansion plan of increasing the port capacity to 28 MMTPA.
“Karaikal Port had already attracted private equity investments by India Infrastructure Fund and Ascent Capital Advisors. With the present investment by NYLIM-JB Fund, Marg Karaikal Port has three institutional investors adding value by their infrastructure exposure & expertise to augment and fuel the ambitious growth plans of Karaikal Port,” GRK Reddy, chairman and managing director, MARG said in a statement.
“We see Karaikal Port emerging as a port of choice on the southeastern coast of India, with efficient operations backed by world class infrastructure. NYLIM-JB Fund is delighted to partner with Marg in this exciting venture,” Partner of Jacob Ballas Capital India, Sunil Chawla, who will be joining the Board of Karaikal Port, said.
Total cargo handled at the port stood at 6.01 million tonnes in 2011-12 when compared with 4.75 million tonnes in the previous financial year. The major growth driver was higher volume of fertiliser cargo whose volumes almost doubled during the fiscal.
Marg Karaikal Port, located in the union territory of Puducherry, is the only all weather, deep water, multi-commodity port between Chennai port and Tuticorin port. With its strategic location and excellent connectivity, is well positioned to cater to the agricultural and industrial belts of central Tamil Nadu. It at present operates three multi-purpose berths and two berths dedicated to coal cargo.
The Port is being developed over III phases and is envisaged to have a total of nine berths capable of handling up to 47 MMTPA by 2017.
Source: My Digital FC