Adani Power shares surge 4% on CCI nod to acquire Lanco Amarkantak Power

Shares of Adani Power surged 4.35% to hit an intraday high of ₹544.65 on Wednesday after the fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved a 100% acquisition of Lanco Amarkantak Power Limited by the company on March 26.

Following this, the share price of Adani Power opened higher at ₹530, up 1.5%, as against the previous closing price of ₹521.90. At 1:27 pm, the share price of the company was trading 3.99% higher at ₹542.70. This was in line with the broader BSE Sensex, which was trading 577.28 points higher at 73,047.

The company's market capitalisation stood at ₹2,09,547.49 crore with 75,649 shares exchanging hands on the BSE, as against the two-week average of 8.84 lakh shares. The company hit a 52-week high of ₹589.30 on December 6 last year. The company hit a 52-week low of ₹166.25 on March 29 last year.

In the past three months, six months and one year, the counter has surged 4.22%, 44.83% and 197.02%, respectively. In the year-to-date period, the counter has surged 3.47%.

As per the exchange filing, the proposed combination relates to the acquisition of 100% equity share capital of the target by the acquirer, says CCI. The development comes days after the Adani Group subsidiary, on March 5, got approval from the creditors for the resolution plan to acquire Lanco Amarkantak Power Limited. Lanco Amarkantak Power Limited is currently undergoing the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.

Lanco Amarkantak Power Limited owns and operates a 2x300 MW (600 MW) thermal power plant (PhaseI) at Pathadi Village in Korba District of Chhattisgarh. The Phase-I capacity is tied up with Haryana and Madhya Pradesh DISCOMs under long-term Power Purchase Agreements. It is also setting up a 2x660 MW (1320 MW) expansion capacity under Phase II.

In the October to December quarter of FY24, the company’s net profit stood at ₹2,738 crore, jumping multi-fold as against ₹9 crore in the same period last year. The company’s revenue from operations stood at ₹12,991 crore, up 67% YoY as against ₹7,764 crore in the same period last year. The EBITDA (earnings before income, tax, depreciation and amortisation) stood at ₹5,059 crore in the December quarter, as against ₹1,996 crore in the same period last year.

The installed operation capacity of Adani Power in the December quarter stood at 14,250 MW with a plant load factor of 68.6%.

Notably, in August last year, the U.S.-based investment fund GQG Partners, which is led by Rajiv Jain, picked up an 8.1% stake in the power arm of billionaire Gautam Adani-led Adani Group.